Urrutia takes pole ahead of Yann Ehrlacher

How close this qualification was! The top 4 finish in the same second. Urrutia was the strongest in the last sector, he who is discovering the Portuguese circuit. The South American is really satisfied with his performance, his last pole position in the main race was at Motorland Aragon in 2020. Lynk & Co seem at ease on the urban circuit of Vila Real, there are three drivers from the Chinese brand among the first four places in qualifying. Yann Ehrlacher did well in the championship (he pocketed the 10 points for having set the absolute best time in qualifying), in the game since the start of the weekend, the double World Cup winner could well get back into the running. general. The nice surprise comes from Nestor Girolami (Honda Racing), third in this qualification. The Japanese car really seemed to be in difficulty during free practice, but René Munnich's team managed to give the Argentinian a high-performance car for this qualification. Girolami, still well placed in the championship, can cause trouble in the weekend's races which could be contested on a wet track (rain is expected tomorrow in Vila Real). Qinghua Ma had a very good performance, placing 4th in the session, the Chinese is having an excellent season for his WTCR debut. He is ahead of Norbert Michelisz who signs a new top 5 in qualifying, the winner of the 2018 World Cup can be ambitious tomorrow…. If his temper doesn't play tricks on him.

Yvan Muller on pole for race 2

The Alsatian played very tactical by qualifying 10th in the second part of the qualification. He was able to improve his time to advance to Q3, but Cyan Racing halted his effort asking him to secure the top position for Race 2 of the weekend. The disappointment is for Mikel Azcona (Hyundai Motorsport). In good spirits since the start of the day, the Spaniard fails in Q2, he will start from 7th place in the main race, he will have to put himself in danger to recover precious points this Sunday. The other disappointment is for Esteban Guerrieri, the Argentinian did not manage to get out of Q3. He will start the two races from a distant 14th place. In the Audi clan, the performance of the day is signed Mehdi Bennani P6 in qualifying, the Moroccan was the fastest of his teammates. Gilles Magnus qualified 11th, Nathanaël Berthon 14th and Tom Coronel will start last in both races. 

Both WTCR races will be contested tomorrow. Meet at 13:10 p.m. local time for the first (14:10 p.m. in France) and 17:15 p.m. for the second (18:15 p.m. in France). All WTCR results can be found on autohebdo.fr