Girolami tops dramatic night-time qualifying session

Honda driver Néstor Girolami has topped a crazy sunset qualifying session at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, which saw two cars black-flagged, the championship leader miss his second run due to a miscue by his Cyan Racing team, and with the session split into two due a 20-minute recovery of a stricken car.
The reduced grid of 16 cars, following the withdrawal of the four Hyundai entries this morning, took to the track with Yann Ehrlacher breaking the qualifying lap record of his Cyan Racing team-mate Thed Björk on his first run with a time of 8:52.965, with Girolami his closest threat, just seven-tenths of a second back.
Gilles Magnus also looked to be a threat for pole in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, setting the best third sector time, but was forced into the pits with a suspension issue, with the team fighting hard to repair it, and sending him back out with just two minutes left to go, but he was only able to go 12th on his second run.
The Zengő Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición of Bence Boldizs failed to set a time, due to the Hungarian’s car exceeding the noise limit. First the car received the mechanical black flag, and later completely black-flagged when he went out a second time after the team’s repairs didn’t make a difference and removed from the session.
Boldizs’s teammate Mikel Azcona was also given a mechanical black flag as his car exceeded the circuit’s noise limit when he went out for his second run, but fortunately the Spaniard’s first lap time was good enough to secure him sixth on the grid.
All cars returned to the pit lane for an inordinately extended period as there was a yellow flag, and then later a Code 60 at the hairpin on the Grand Prix section, where Jack Young had gone off in his Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane. The Northern Irishman’s best lap time was also deleted for having caused the Code 60, which lasted for the best part of 20 minutes as the marshals struggled to recover his car, with the green flag only flying again with six minutes left of the 40-minute session.
This messed up many team’s qualifying plans and caught out the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team, who sent their leading charge Ehrlacher out too late, and he came across the chequered flag as he returned from the Grand Prix loop and wouldn’t be able to improve his time.
This left Girolami with a clear run, and the Argentine went on to claim pole position in his Münnich Motorsport Honda, with a time of 8:51.802, over a second clear of Ehrlacher’s time. Attila Tassi secured third on the grid, with Björk in fourth and Tom Coronel in fifth.
Zolder pole position holder Nathanael Berthon qualified down in tenth, and therefore should have secured pole position for the reversed grid first race tomorrow evening, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Jean-Karl Vernay, and the Honda of Esteban Guerrieri. However, everything was changed by the Stewards’ decisions: Berthon was dropped ten places on the grid for a code 60 violation, Vernay was pushed at the back because of an engine change, and Urrutia had all his times disallowed for not stopping at weighing bay. As a consequence, Muller will have the pole for Race 1, with Guerrieri alongside him.
Race 1 will start on Friday at 16:40 (CEST). 

Qualifying
1. 8:51.802 – Néstor Girolami (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R)
2. 8:52.695 – Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03)
3. 8:54.091 – Attila Tassi (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R)
4. 8:54.870 – Thed Björk (Cyan Performance, Lynk & Co 03)
5. 8:55.077 – Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points
1. Yann Ehrlacher 51 pts; 2. Néstor Girolami 46; 3. Yvan Muller 31

Picture: WTCR/DPPI