Pekař pips Vesnić for TCR Eastern Europe pole in Hungary

Czech driver Tomáš Pekař set the first pole position of the 2021 TCR Eastern Europe season at the Hungaroring, beating the 2019 champion and 2020 vice-champion Milovan Vesnić by only 14 thousandths of a second.
After setting the fastest lap in the morning’s Free Practice, Vesnić and his Audi RS 3 LMS had been leading the timesheet for most of the session, setting provisional fastest laps of 1:55.255 and 1:54.571. However, halfway through the 30-minute Qualifying, the CUPRA cars of Michal Makeš and Pekař improved to 1:54.392 and 1:54.316.
After a quick pit stop, Vesnić took to the track again and regained the leadership with two consecutive fastest laps of 1:54.246 and 1:54.080 when only two minutes had left on the clock.
But that was not the end of it, as Pekař put in an even faster last lap of 1:54.066 and claimed the pole in the final minute.
With Vesnić and Makeš in second and third positions, Polish driver Łukasz Stolarczyk qualified his Audi in fourth place ahead of the CUPRA driven by the Italian Giacomo Ghermandi on his maiden appearance in the championship. Petr Čížek (CUPRA Leon Competición) and Sebastian Steibel (Volkswagen Golf GTI) ranked sixth and seventh.
Both races will be streamed live tomorrow at www.tcr-series.com; Race 1 at 10:45 and Race 2 at 14:05 local times (CEST).

Qualifying
1:54.066 Tomáš Pekař (Carpek Service, CUPRA)
1:54.080 Milovan Vesnić (Vesnić Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:54.377 Michal Makeš (Micanek Motorsport, CUPRA)
1:55.426 Łukasz Stolarczyk (BTC Maszyny, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:55.446 Giacomo Ghermandi (LEMA Racing, CUPRA)

Championship points
1. T. Pekař 3 pts; 2. M. Vesnić 2; 3. M. Makeš 1

Picture: TCR Eastern Europe/Petr Frýba