Nathanael Berthon, driving a Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS, claimed his second pole position of the weekend in the WTCR at the Slovakiaring after beating the Hyundai i30 N of Norbert Michelisz by just over 28 hundredths of a second in the third and final stage of Qualifying.
The early laps of Q1 saw the Lynk & Co and Honda cars working together to offer a tow to their teammates. Yann Ehrlacher was the early pacesetter with a lap time of 2:11.484 before Berthon first set a time of 2:10.428 and then improved that time with a 2:10.151 to end the session in P1 and so claim pole for the opening race.
Behind him, Jean-Karl Vernay lapped in 1:10.615 and looked set to claim P2 until Nicky Catsburg posted a 2:10.612 on his last lap. Gilles Magnus (2:10.655) then dropped to P4 ahead of Gabriele Tarquini and Michelisz.
Néstor Girolami was the best of the Honda drivers in P7, with Tom Coronel finishing in P8 ahead of Esteban Guerrieri, Santiago Urrutia (the only Lynk & Co driver to make it through to Q2), Attila Tassi and Luca Filippi. Ehrlacher, meanwhile, ended the session in P15.
Q2 was interrupted after only three minutes when Tassi left the track and hit the tyre wall, bringing out the red flags. When the session resumed, just under six and a half minutes remained and so the drivers were effectively left with only one run possible, with Tarquini soon ruled out with a broken front splitter.
Catsburg set the quickest time with a best lap of 2:09.586, ahead of Magnus, Michelisz, Berthon and Coronel – those five going through to the third Qualifying stage, including three Comtoyou Audi entries. After qualifying in P10, Girolami will start from pole in Race 2 with the Alfa Romeo of Filippi alongside him on the front row.
First of the five to go in Q3 was Magnus, who set a very clean lap time of 2:10.174. He was immediately beaten by Michelisz who was very aggressive through the first sector to set a time of 2:09.793. Berthon was then visibly faster through the third sector to post a 2:09.510, a time neither Coronel (2:09.939) nor Catsburg (2:09.881) could beat.
Berthon will therefore start Race 3 from pole with Michelisz alongside him on the grid. Catsburg and Coronel make up Row 2 and Magnus starts from P5.
Race 1 will start on Sunday at 09:15 local time (CEST).
Qualifying
2:09.510 – Nathanaël Berthon (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
2:09.792 – Norbert Michelisz (BRC Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
2:09.881 – Nicky Catsburg (BRC Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
2:09.939 – Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
2:10.274 – Gilles Magnus (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
Championship points
- Yann Ehrlacher 92 pts
- Néstor Girolami 61 pts
- Thed Björk 61 pts
