TCR International Series: Morbidelli on pole at Red Bull Ring

West Coast Racing drivers Gianni Morbidelli and Kevin Gleason were the fastest in today’s Qualifying session of TCR International Series at Red Bull Ring. The Italian was the only competitor able to break the 1:40 mark and he achieved his pole position with lap time 1:39.798, six-tenth of second faster than Gleason. This was Morbidelli’s third pole in the current season so far.

The 17-year old Hungarian Daniel Nagy created the biggest surprise of the day. On his first appearance in an international event, Nagy qualified his Zengö Motorsport SEAT Leon in third position. Championship leader Stefano Comini (Target Competition) claimed fourth position, ahead of Craft-Bamboo Lukoil Racing drivers Sergey Afanasyev and Pepe Oriola. Andrea Belicchi was seventh and Jordi Gene was eighth.

After good lap times in Free Practice sessions, the two Volkswagen Golf cars were not as impressive in Qualifying. Pol Rosell and Mikhail Grachev posted the tenth and ninth fastest laps respectively, meaning that they will share the front row on the top-ten reverse grid for tomorrow’s Race 2.

Igor Skuz qualified 11th, however he will be demoted to 16th on the grid for Race 1 as a consequence of a penalty he received for causing an incident with Bas Schouten during the second race at the Salzburgring.

Sunday’s races will start at 8.25 and 11.40 local time, with a distance of 14 laps each.