Photo: FIA WTCR

Esteban Guerrieri leads Honda 1-2-3 in qualifying at Estoril

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Münnich Motorsport dominated the qualifying session for the second round of the 2021 WTCR season, with Esteban Guerrieri claiming the pole position ahead of Honda colleagues Tiago Monteiro and Néstor Girolami.

Guerrieri was the second driver to venture to the track in the Q3 shootout, setting a lap time of 1:44.522, with Monteiro a close second just 0.117 seconds behind and Girolami in third, 0.249 seconds off the pace.

The Argentinean said after the session: “I’m really happy for the whole team. The Honda cars are very good here and that’s good because, with the temperature, you can overheat the tyres very easily. JK (Vernay) was also very close, so it’s a good result for all of us.”

Engstler Hyundai driver Jean-Karl Vernay qualified fourth, 0.311 seconds behind and was right ahead of Attila Tassi, just 0.061 second further adrift.

Vernay added: “I think my Q3 lap was very good, I was driving 100% and to the limit, so I think you have to be happy with that. Tyre management was very tricky, we couldn’t beat the Honda guys but we are close.”

BRC driver Norbert Michelisz just missed out on the Q3 by finishing in sixth place in the Q2 session, 0.324 seconds off the pace.

The Hyundai driver was followed by Lynk & Co drivers Santiago Urrutia, Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher.

Gabriele Tarquini qualified in tenth place, thus claiming the pole position for Sunday’s Race 1.

The veteran Italian said after the qualifying: “We did some change in the setup, probably not my first choice, but the car came back a little bit and I did a good lap.”

Team Engstler driver Luca Engstler just missed tenth place by 48 thousandths of a second and will start both races from 11th on the grid, just ahead of Cyan Racing driver Thed Björk who topped the final practice session.

Audi and Cupra struggled in the Portuguese qualifying session, with Mikel Azcona just missed Q2 by qualifying in 13th place, 1.2 seconds off the pace.

Comtoyou Racing’s Nathanael Berthon was the best Audi RS 3 LMS driver, qualifying in the 14th spot of the grid for both races.

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for Sunday morning at 12:15 WEST.