Andreas Bäckman takes second successive pole in wet-dry qualifying at Barcelona
Hyundai’s Andreas Bäckman claimed his second TCR Europe series pole position in as many rounds as Target Competition locked out the front row for the opening race of the Barcelona weekend.
Bäckman set a time of 2:12.123 in his i30 N TCR to go over three-tenths of a second quicker than team-mate and points leader Josh Files.
JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché will start third on the grid in his Peugeot 308TCR, some six-tenths off Bäckman’s time.
Files’s nearest title challenger, M1RA’s Luca Engstler set the slowest time of Q2, but will start both races from 12, while Dan Lloyd starts Sunday’s second race from pole.
Heavy morning showers made sure the track was wet but drying as the cars headed out for the first segment of qualifying.
FP1 pace-setter Magnus was the first to set a representative lap-time in his Comtoyou Audi RS 3 LMS, posting a 2:13.409 to go over two-tenths of a second faster than Urrutia.
Briché then jumped to the top of the times in his Peugeot – running with 30kg of compensation weight this weekend – with a time of 2:13.301, which put him three-tenths faster than Magnus.
The Frenchman was then usurped by Urrutia’s Audi in the closing minutes as the track began to form a dry line. Bäckman only just made it into the top 12 cut-off, beating the M Racing i30 N TCR of Nelson Panciatici by just five-hundredths of a second.
Failing to make the cut was the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR of Gianni Morbidelli. The Italian, who struggled with the handling of his car despite strong pace in practice was a lowly 22nd on the grid.
Q2 began with Files setting an initial benchmark of 2:12.448, which was almost three-tenths quicker than Briché’s best efforts.
Bäckman then went quicker still, with his time remaining unbeaten until the end of the session.
The Team Clairet Sport Peugeot pairing of Jimmy and Teddy Clairet each made it into Q2 and set the fifth and sixth quickest times respectively. They line up behind Urrutia in fourth, but ahead of the best of the Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCRs of Tom Coronel.
Series debutant Jack Young was the sensation of the session though as he qualified his Vukovic Renault Megane TCR in an impressive eighth place.
The Belfast driver – who plies his trade in the Renault Clio UK championship – will also start tomorrow’s Race 2 from third.
Magnus was ninth fastest, ahead of the Brutal Fish Racing Honda Civic Type R of Lloyd. Baumann and Engstler rounded out the Q2 runners.
Race 1 at Barcelona is scheduled to take place at 17:20 CEST.
