Tassi and Files make a Honda front row for Barcelona Race 1
The Hell Energy Racing with KCMG duo of Attila Tassi and Josh Files monopolised the front row for this afternoon’s Race 1, the penultimate round of the TCR Europe Series at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.
In the battle for the European crown, current points leader Mikel Azcona has moved another small step closer to the title as he qualified in third position and scored three points against the two points awarded to Borković for the fourth place.
With the third contender Jean-Karl Vernay forced to start 13th in both races, the young Spaniard is in the position to administrate his advantage in the standings: 22 points over Vernay and 31 over Borković.
Though, having the Serbian alongside him on the grid wouldn’t make him too much comfortable…
Race 1 will start at 17:30 CET (live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv).
Q1 – Azcona is fastest as Vernay is kicked off
With two minutes left on the clock, Azcona jumped on top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:53.802 and seconds later Sutton posted the second fastest lap of 1:53.996.
None of the other drivers was able to complete a lap under the 1:54 mark, with Borković in third position, as he was timed at 1:54.057.
Vernay failed to make the cut and ranked 13th; the Frenchman was kicked out of the top-twelve by Halder and dropped behind Barr by just 45 thousandths.
The second Audi car of Berthon was eliminated as well after sitting in the pits for most of the time due to a broken turbo pipe.
The top-14 were covered by just nine tenths and the following drivers made it to Q2: Azcona, Sutton, Borković, Richard, Michelisz, Halder, Files, Tassi, Nagy, Briché, Terting, Barr.
Q2 – Tassi beats Files to the pole position
Tassi set the fastest lap of 1:53.861 on his second attempt and demoted to second his teammate Files who had clocked a provisional fastest lap of 1:53.902 in his first run. The gap between them was just 41 thousandths.
Azcona was not able to repeat his Q1 exploit and settled in third with a lap of 1:54.167, followed by Borković (1:54.186), while Michelisz (1:54.198) and Sutton (1:54.367) will fill the third row of the grid for this afternoon’s Race 1.
There were just seven tenths covering the twelve drivers taking part in Q2.
Terting and Halder qualified tenth and ninth respectively and will share the front row of the reverse grid for Race 2.
