Mike Halder claimes third pole at the Nürburgring
Mike Halder placed his Honda Civic FK7 on pole position for the third time out of four events in the TCR Germany at the Nürburgring.
After topping the timesheet in both the Free Practice sessions and posting the third fastest lap in Q1, Halder dominated Q2 setting a provisional fastest time of 1:34.709 and improving it further to 1:34.263.
Max Hesse qualified in second position at the wheel of his Prosport Performance Audi RS3 LMS (1:34.848) ahead of the impressive Peugeot 308 of Lukas Niedertscheider (1:35.092).
Racing One's Niels Langeveld (1:35.126), Halder’s sister Michelle (1:35.173) and HP Racing’s Harald Proczyk (1:35.328) rounded off the top-six. Proczyk’s Opel Astra had been the fastest in Q1, with a lap of 1:34.998, but the Austrian driver who is still leading the standings was not able to repeat that time in Q2. This also meant that Langeveld reduced his gap from Proczyk from 22 to 20 points.
In Q1, only six tenths covered the top-twelve who advanced to Q2; seven different brands were represented: Opel (3 cars), Audi, Cupra and Honda (2 cars each), Hyundai, Peugeot and Volkswagen (one each). Only one of the debuting Hyundai cars run by Team Engstler, Théo Coicaud’s, made the cut, while Luca Engstler’s qualified 18th. For the first time both the lady drivers – Michelle Halder (Cupra) and Jasmin Preisig (Opel) advanced to Q2 and qualified fifth and 11th respectively.
Proczyk’s teammate Luke Wankmüller was classified tenth in Q2 and so will start from pole position in Sunday’s Race 2, with Benjamin Leuchter (Max Kruse Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI) alongside him.
Race 1 will start Saturday at 11:55 (live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv).
