Franco Girolami claims pole for TCR Italy season opener at Mugello
MM Motorsport’s Franco Girolami has taken pole position for the opening round of the TCR Italy championship season at Mugello.
The Argentinian, brother of World Touring Car Cup driver Néstor, set a time of 1:56.850 in his Honda Civic Type R TCR, to beat Eric Brigliadori’s BF Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS by a fraction over four-tenths of a second.
Target Competition’s Marco Pellegrini will start the first race from third, with two-time Series champion Salvatore Tavano fourth in the Girasole run Cupra León Competición, which is making its world racing debut this weekend.
Torrential rain affected much of Friday’s practice sessions, with times in the opening test ranging from 10 seconds to over 20 seconds off the ultimate pace.
Pellegrini was the only driver to manage a representative time in his Hyundai i30 N TCR with a 1:59.318, some 10.236 seconds quicker than Tavano’s Cupra.
Conditions improved for the second session, with Felice Jelmini posting the fastest time ahead of Tavano, with Pellegrini third quickest.
Come qualifying, Girolami set the first benchmark time of 1:59.730, which he quickly whittled down to his fastest effort of 1:56.850.
Behind Tavano, Damian Reduzzi finished the session fifth on the grid, but some 1.378 seconds behind Girolami’s best time.
Alessandro Giardelli set the sixth quickest time in his DSG Cupra, ahead of the second BF Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS of Francesca Raffaele.
Simon Pellegrinelli was eighth in the sister Girasole Cupra León Competición, while Michele Imberti (Elite Motorsport Cupra) and Ettore Carminati (Hyundai i30 N TCR) rounded out the top ten.
The first race of the season begins later on today at 18:40 CEST.
