CUPRA cars on pole for both TCR Europe races at Monza

John Filippi of Sébastien Loeb Racing and Klim Gavrilov of Volcano Motorsport placed their CUPRA Leon Competición cars on pole positions for the pair of TCR Europe races at Monza.

Ahead of the Q1 stage, the session was declared wet with rain forecast throughout the day. The first competitive laps were set by Felice Jelmini (2:05.215), Josh Files (2:05.585), Pepe Oriola (2:04.628), Jáchym Galáš (2:04.445) and Marco Butti (2:04.360). On the next lap, the Target Competition cars of Files, Jelmini and Nicola Baldan all improved but the Halder Motorsport Honda Civic of Jack Young went P1 with a lap of 2:01.860. Butti also improved (2:02.054) to be second behind Young. Franco Girolami then went P1 with a 2:01.400 before Jelmini improved to go second (2:01.849) but Butti then was fastest again with a 2:00.752 and Felipe Fernández went P3 (2:01.703).

Going into the second half of the twenty-minute leg, Baldan improved to go second fastest (2:01.040) and Files went P5 (2:01.575). Butti then improved with 2:00.542, Filippi went P2 (2:00.695) and Girolami P3 (2:00.754). With less than three minutes remaining, Gavrilov went fastest with a lap of 1:59.834 and Galáš went P2 (2:00.521) before the session was red-flagged after Young’s car was stranded at Turn 1 with what appeared to be damaged steering. 

The twelve drivers who went through to Q2 were Gavrilov, Galáš, Butti, Filippi, Girolami, Files, Felipe Fernández, Baldan, Rubén Fernández, Michelle Halder, Sergio López and Michele Imberti. Among those who did not make the cut where Young, Tom Coronel, Oriola, Mike Halder and Isidro Callejas.

The first competitive laps of Q2 were set by Imberti (2:05.295), Filippi (2:05.694) and Baldan (2:05.747). Filippi then improved on his next lap to go fastest with a time of 2:03.731 and Baldan also improved to go second with 2:04.721. Galáš was third (2:04.781) ahead of Michelle Halder (2:05.034) and Butti (2:05.074). 

With a little over a minute of the ten-minute session remaining, a stream of cars crossed the finish line to start their last laps. When they took the chequered flag, nobody had improved and so it was Filippi who claimed pole position for Race 1 with Gavrilov on pole for Race 2. Drivers’ championship leader Girolami qualified seventh, so will start from P4 in Race 2 but his closest challenger Files was the slowest of the twelve and so will start from the sixth row of the grid in both races. As a result of the Qualifying session, Girolami has edged a further point ahead of Files in the standings and so the Argentine now only needs to out-score the Briton by 17 points to claim the title before the final event of the season in Barcelona.

After the session, Young received a three-place grid penalty for Race 2 after an incident in Q1 with Evgenii Leonov. The punishment was a result of the suspended penalty he received at Spa-Francorchamps. He also received a further suspended three-place penalty for the remainder of the season and will start Race 1 from the back of the grid following an engine change.

Race 1 is scheduled to start at 13:40 local time (CEST) and will be streamed live on TCR TV.

Monza – Qualifying 
2:03.731 John Filippi (Sébastien Loeb Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición)
2:04.721 Nicola Baldan (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)
2:04.781 Jáchym Galáš (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N)

Championship points
1. F. Girolami 307 pts; 2. J. Files 228; 3. T. Coronel 214

Picture: TCR Europe