John Filippi claims pole for TCR Europe’s Race 1 in France

Comtoyou’s John Filippi will start TCR Europe Race 1 at Le Castellet’s Circuit Paul Ricard from pole position after he set the fastest time in Qualifying. Alongside him on the front row of the grid will be points leader Tom Coronel, with Kobe Pauwels and Nicola Baldan on the second row of the grid in two more Comtoyou-run Audi cars. Thanks to the reversed-grid top ten for Race 2, the Hyundai Elantra of Levente Losonczy will start on pole tomorrow after Qualifying in tenth place.

At the start of the twenty-minute Q1, Baldan set the first competitive lap time (2:14.161) ahead of Lewis Brown in a Volcano Motorsport Audi (2:14.657) and the ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type R FL5 of Ruben Volt (2:14.884). Baldan then improved on his next lap with a time of 2:13.872 while Volt went P2 with a time of 2:14.872. Pauwels then beat Baldan’s time by nearly a second to go fastest (2:12.975) with Davidovski going third quickest with a 2:13.930. Aurélien Comte went P4 in an SP Compétition CUPRA (2:13.988) ahead of the Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N of Dušan Borković (2:14.159). Going into the second half of Q1, Coronel (2:13.538) and Filippi (2:13.676) went P2 and P3 respectively which meant Audi cars held all of the top five positions. That increased to all of the top six when Brown improved to P3 with a 2:13.656. Filippi then improved with a time of 2:13.523 to move into P2 ahead of Coronel. With around two minutes of Q1 remaining, Volt went P2 with a 2:13.459 and Comte P3 with a 2:13.504. The twelve drivers who went through to the second stage of Qualifying, therefore, were Pauwels, Volt, Comte, Filippi, Coronel, Baldan, Brown, Davidovski, Marco Butti, Borković, Viktor Andersson and Levente Losonczy.

The ten-minute Q2 would then decide the grids for both the weekend’s races. Pauwels, Coronel and Filippi chose to delay their exit from the pit lane and were among the last to head out on track but once again it was Baldan who set the early pace with a lap of 2:12.900 ahead of Comte (2:13.375) and Brown (2:13.382). Thanks to their delayed exit, Filippi, Pauwels and Coronel only set their first competitive lap times with around two minutes remaining; Filippi set the fastest time (2:12.408) with Coronel P2 (2:12.594) and Pauwels P3 (2:12.704). There were no further improvements, so Comtoyou Audi cars will fill both of the first two rows on the grid for Race 1 while Losonczy will start Race 2 from pole position in the Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai. Butti’s Target Competition Elantra failed to take part in Q2 due to a steering rack problem. 

Race 1 is due to start later, at 19:05 CEST, with live streaming on tcr-series.tv.

Le Castellet – Qualifying

1. John Filippi (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2:12.408

2. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2:12.594

3. Kobe Pauwels (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1:12.704

Championship points

1. T. Coronel, 300; 2. J. Filippi, 259; 3. K. Pauwels 148

Picture: TCR Europe