Thed Björk sets new TCR record on way to Nürburgring pole position
Thed Björk will lead a YMR Hyundai 1-2 at the start of Race 1 at the Nürburgring, with the Swede outqualifying team-mate Yvan Muller by eight-hundredths of a second around the famous 25km circuit. Norbert Michelisz completes a top three lockout for the South Korean manufacturer on the grid, after qualifying third for BRC Hyundai.
The Hyundais had dialled up the pace from the start of the session which was the first dry running of the day, with Björk setting the first benchmark just head of the BRC car of Michelisz, with Rob Huff their closest challenger in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen in third.
Björk further improved his time on his second run, breaking the nine-minute barrier with a time of 8:58.700, while Michelisz’s run ended in sector two after an error and the Hungarian was forced to back off.
Björk’s team-mate Yvan Muller now emerged as his closest rival, with the Frenchman going second fastest, just 0.079 seconds behind.
René Rast improved to go third in the WRT Audi, but the reigning DTM champion was soon outpaced by Rob Huff’s Volkswagen.
There was a final improvement to come from Norbert Michelisz, who put his Hyundai third on the grid, four-tenths down on Björk’s time, while Esteban Guerrieri made a late improvement to qualify as the fastest Honda driver in fourth in his Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic.
Huff will line up fifth ahead of Rast, with championship leader Gabriele Tarquini seventh in the BRC Hyundai, Gordon Shedden eighth in his WRT Audi, and with the Boutsen Ginion Hondas of Tom Coronel and Benjamin Lessennes completing the top ten.
A few cars ran into difficulties, with Aurélien Panis damaging his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS at the Hatzenbach, while the second Zengõ Cupra of Norbert Nagy also crashed out at the end of the session, adding further misery for the Hungarian team, who were already unable to repair Zsolt Szabo’s car after his smash in practice.
The first race takes place this evening at 19:45 CET.
