Hungary WTCR: Girolami beats Muller to pole

Overnight rain meant the track was still damp in patches for Saturday morning's second practice session, but those had cleared by the start of WTCR qualifying at 11.45am local time.

Girolami, who had set the pace in first practice and would have topped FP2 but for his lap being chalked off for track limits, looked on course to usurp Cyan Racing Lynk & Co driver Muller at the head of the order with five minutes remaining.

But the Argentinian aborted that lap and headed back to the Munnich garage before attempting one final run in his Honda.

That decision paid off, as Girolami set a best time of 1m52.586s - beating Muller's previous benchmark by 0.171 seconds - with less than two minutes remaining.

Girolami's teammate Esteban Guerrieri had a scruffier session and only recorded a first timed lap with five minutes left on the clock, but improved on his final run to claim third behind Muller.

Aurelien Panis was an excellent fourth in his Comtoyou Racing Cupra, ahead of Muller's Lynk & Co teammates Yann Ehrlacher and Thed Bjork.

Johan Kristoffersson recorded what was comfortably the best qualifying result for the Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen team at the start of the 2019 season, securing seventh on the grid.

Audi's leading runner was WRT driver Jean-Karl Vernay in eighth, with a late effort from Augusto Farfus (BRC Racing Hyundai) separating Vernay's car from the similar Comtoyou Audi of Frederic Vervisch.

Daniel Haglof (PWR Cupra) and the second Volkswagen of Mehdi Bennani were 11th and 12th, ahead of home favourite Norbert Michelisz and his BRC Hyundai teammate Gabriele Tarquini.

The fourth Lynk & Co of Hungaroring rookie Andy Priaulx was 15th, while Kevin Ceccon was the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo outfit's lead representative in 19th.

Qualifying results:

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Nestor Girolami	Honda	1'52.586
2	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	1'52.757	0.171
3	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	1'52.893	0.307
4	Aurelien Panis	Seat	1'52.955	0.369
5	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	1'53.042	0.456
6	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	1'53.065	0.479
7	Johan Kristoffersson	Volkswagen	1'53.158	0.572
8	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi	1'53.217	0.631
9	Augusto Farfus	Hyundai	1'53.267	0.681
10	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	1'53.274	0.688
11	Daniel Haglof	Seat	1'53.286	0.700
12	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	1'53.289	0.703
13	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	1'53.290	0.704
14	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	1'53.298	0.712
15	Andy Priaulx	Lynk & Co	1'53.397	0.811
16	Mikel Azcona	Seat	1'53.486	0.900
17	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	1'53.496	0.910
18	Attila Tassi	Honda	1'53.548	0.962
19	Kevin Ceccon	Alfa Romeo	1'53.659	1.073
20	Nick Catsburg	Hyundai	1'53.690	1.104
21	Ma Qing Hua	Alfa Romeo	1'53.780	1.194
22	Niels Langeveld	Audi	1'53.845	1.259
23	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	1'53.903	1.317
24	Gordon Shedden	Audi	1'54.048	1.462
25	Benjamin Leuchter	Volkswagen	1'54.078	1.492
26	Tom Coronel	Seat	1'54.213	1.627
27	Tamas Tenke	Seat	1'57.067	4.481
View full results