Photo: TCR South America

First part of TCR World Tour’s El Pinar qualifying to be split in groups

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The size of this weekend’s entry list for the joint TCR World Tour and TCR South America round at El Pinar has prompted organisers to split the field in two for qualifying.

There will be a record 30 cars on track for the two practice sessions on Saturday morning in Uruguay, then for the first segment of qualifying in the afternoon there will be two groups of 15 cars each.

The TCR World Tour’s usual qualifying format has the 12 fastest drivers from Q1 progressing to Q2, and in this instance it will be six fastest drivers from each group who head to the second segment of qualifying.

For the remaining 18 positions on the grid for Race 1, positions will be determined in a similar manner. The seventh-fastest driver from the faster Q1 group will line up 13th, then the seventh fastest driver from the slower group will be 14th. The same method is applied down the order with the slowest of each group filling the back row pending any penalties.

Of the World Tour-focused entrants, points leader Yann Ehrlacher and Cyan Racing team-mate Ma Qing Hua are in Group A, along with Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch, Squadra Martino Racing’s Néstor Girolami and BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona.

Put into Group B are Comtoyou’s Rob Huff, BRC’s Norbert Michelisz and Cyan duo Thed Björk and Santiago Urrutia.