Hungary WTCR: Michelisz scores pole with new lap record

Practice pacesetter Michelisz carrier his form into the first of the weekend's qualifying sessions, which sets the grid for Saturday's first race, recording his TCR pole lap record with his first flying lap.

The BRC Racing driver managed a 1m52.644s in his Hyundai and, despite abandoning a subsequent lap that had been on par with his first effort, still beat nearest challenger Esteban Guerrieri to pole by a quarter of a second.

Michelisz's fastest time maintains Hyundai's perfect record of qualifying pole positions at the start of the new WTCR season.

Guerrieri's effort aboard his Munnich Motorsport Honda prevented a Hyundai 1-2-3 lockout, with his late 1m52.900s lap dropping YMR driver Thed Bjork and Michelisz's BRC teammate Gabriele Tarquini to third and fourth respectively.

Benjamin Lessennes was an impressive fifth in his Boutsen Ginion Honda, although the 18-year-old is expected to take a five-place grid drop for failing to adhere to full course yellow directives during the 30-minute session.

He beat the similar Munnich Honda of Yann Ehrlacher, while the Hyundais of Yvan Muller and wildcard entrant Daniel Nagy - the Hungarian, racing for Michelisz's M1RA team, carrying an additional 20 kilograms of ballast as per series regulations - were seventh and eighth.

Rob Huff was the lead representative for any of the Volkswagen Audi Group cars in ninth in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf, with fellow Brit James Thompson completing the top 10 in the third Munnich car.

WRT driver Jean-Karl Vernay was 11th in the best of the Audis, but teammate Gordon Shedden's practice struggles carried over into qualifying. He qualified 25th of the 27 runners, 2.679 seconds off the pace.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	1'52.644
2	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	1'52.900	0.256
3	Thed Bjork	Hyundai	1'53.063	0.419
4	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	1'53.088	0.444
5	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	1'53.152	0.508
6	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	1'53.213	0.569
7	Yvan Muller	Hyundai	1'53.315	0.671
8	Daniel Nagy	Hyundai	1'53.487	0.843
9	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	1'53.601	0.957
10	James Thompson	Honda	1'53.736	1.092
11	Jean Karl Vernay	Audi	1'53.900	1.256
12	Tom Coronel	Honda	1'54.144	1.500
13	Nathanael Berthon	Audi	1'54.174	1.530
14	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	1'54.319	1.675
15	Mat'o Homola	Peugeot	1'54.379	1.735
16	John Filippi	Seat	1'54.387	1.743
17	Norbert Nagy	Seat	1'54.474	1.830
18	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	1'54.476	1.832
19	Aurelien Comte	Peugeot	1'54.573	1.929
20	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	1'54.596	1.952
21	Attila Tassi	Honda	1'54.749	2.105
22	Pepe Oriola	Seat	1'54.900	2.256
23	Aurelien Panis	Audi	1'55.017	2.373
24	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	1'55.101	2.457
25	Gordon Shedden	Audi	1'55.323	2.679
26	Denis Dupont	Audi	1'55.524	2.880
27	Zsolt Szabo	Seat	1'55.703	3.059