Kevin Ceccon takes shock first pole position for Alfa Romeo at Suzuka
Kevin Ceccon followed up his second-place qualifying result from Qualifying 1 with his first pole position in the top-five shootout of Qualifying 2, his first and the first for the Romeo Ferraris-built Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.
The Italian stormed to pole position after first topping the second segment of qualifying in his Alfa Romeo, securing the final spot in the top-five shootout and then going on to take pole with the only time under 2:11 set all weekend, seven-tenths clear of Hyundai driver Gabriele Tarquini.
Joining him in the shootout was Race 1 pole-sitter Aurélien Comte, but the Frenchman made a mistake on his lap in the DG Sport Peugeot 308TCR, and had to settle for third, with the BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR of Gabriele Tarquini, despite running with the full 60kg of compensation weight, qualifying second.
The best Honda was that of Yann Ehrlacher in fourth, setting a steady time in his Münnich Motorsport-run car, while Mehdi Bennani was the slowest competitor in the shootout in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
The second part of qualifying saw some drama, as both the Münnich Honda of Esteban Guerrieri and the YMR Hyundai of Yvan Muller collided on their outlaps.
Muller pitted for a replacement set of tyres, but was unable to set a competitive time, while Guerrieri just managed to make it back out and set a lap which matched Campos Cupra driver Pepe Oriola’s to the thousandth of a second for tenth place.
With Oriola having set the time first, the Spaniard is awarded the spot and with it the reversed grid Race 2 pole position, with Guerrieri is consigned to 11th for both races.
Thed Björk, second in the championship, struggled throughout the day with the set-up on his YMR Hyundai i30 and qualified in 13th position, while his former championship rival Tiago Monteiro enjoyed a successful return to the field, just eight-tenths off the pace in Q1 and qualifying his Honda Civic TCR in 16th for Sunday’s two races.
“It’s incredible for me and for the team,” said Ceccon. “It’s the first pole position for me in the world championship, and Team Mulsanne, and Alfa Romeo.
“It’s also our first Q3, it was an amazing lap. It’s not always easy to improve on your Q2 time, and I’m really happy about the job we did.”
Race 1, with the grid as set earlier this afternoon with Aurélien Comte on pole, is scheduled for 14:05 JST (07:05 CEST) on Saturday, with the reversed grid Race 2 at 11:05 on Sunday with Ceccon taking up his Race 3 pole at 12:30 JST.
