Monteiro tops flooded Qualifying 1 at Suzuka
Tiago Monteiro set pole position for WTCR Race 1 at Suzuka in a Qualifying that was significantly affected by heavy rain. Esteban Guerrieri and Néstor Girolami completed a 1-2-3 for Honda on top of the timesheet.
The 30-minute session lasted more than one hour as it was disrupted four times by the red flag.
Seven minutes into the session, Daniel Haglöf spun off onto the gravel trap, prompting the red flag for the first time. As soon as the session resumed, both Mikel Azcona and Tom Coronel went off and the red flag was waved again. Five minutes after the second restart it was Yvan Muller who crashed at T1 causing another red flag. The fourth part of the session ran non-stop for 15 minutes until Attila Tassi went off at T2 and this resulted in another suspension.
The session resumed one more time with only four minutes left on the clock as the rained has eased a bit. No one was able to beat Monteiro’s 59.713 that had been posted immediately before the fourth red flag. His fellow Honda drivers Esteban Guerrieri and Néstor Girolami qualified second and third, followed by the Audi duo of Niels Langeveld and Frédéric Vervisch.
Guest driver Ritomo Miyata qualified a brilliant seventh in the Hitotsuyama Racing Audi, behind Gabriele Tarquini.
With Guerrieri in second position, the other title contenders remained far behind him, Thed Björk was eighth fastest, the current points leader Norbert Michelisz 14th and Yvan Muller 27th.
WTCR action will continue today with the Qualifying session for Races 2 and 3 at 15:30 local time (08:30 CET).
Qualifying 1
1. 59.713 – Tiago Monteiro (KCMG, Honda Civic FK7)
2. 59.841 – Esteban Guerrieri (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic FK7)
3. 59.967 – Néstor Girolami (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic FK7)
4. 1:00.039 – Niels Langeveld (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
5. 1:00.146 – Frédéric Vervisch (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
Championship points
1. Michelisz 246 pts; 2. Guerrieri 235; 3. Muller 230
