Gabriele Tarquini secured the first-ever pole position for the new Hyundai i30 N TCR in qualifying for the TCR Europe Trophy at the Adria International Raceway in Italy, with Target Competition’s Josh Files in second.

Tarquini was comfortably the man to beat throughout the two-part qualifying session, despite a significant vibration issue afflicting the front-left wheel on his car.

The Italian went to the top of the times on his first Q2 run with a time of 1 minute 19.341 seconds, which would be enough to give the i30 it’s first-ever worldwide TCR pole – just three weeks after Tarquini gave Hyundai a first win in China.

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Files improved to second in the closing five minutes of the session, but the two-time TCR Germany champion was only able to get to a time which was 0.177 seconds adrift of Tarquini’s Hyundai, leaving the Brit to start alongside for Sunday’s first race.

The second Target Competition Honda of 17-year-old Giacomo Altoè was third, ahead of the leading Volkswagen of Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Luca Engstler in fourth.

Luigi Ferrara put his V-Action Racing Alfa Romeo in a strong fifth, ahead of WRT’s Maxime Potty in sixth.

LMS Racing’s Antti Buri was the leading Audi driver in seventh, despite the Ingolstadt marque’s cars having been handed a 20-kilogram weight break ahead of the session in a last-minute Balance of Performance adjustment.

Team Novadriver’s Francisco Abreu took eighth, whilst the race two reverse grid will be headed up by DG Sport’s Aurélien Comte, who was ninth fastest, and Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Florian Thoma, who was tenth.

Plamen Kralev put his Audi in 11th, whilst Giovanni Altoè took 12th in his self-run Volkswagen.

Tecnodom’s Kevin Giacon just missed out on entry into Q2 and was 13th, with the Italian having had his final Q1 lap disallowed for exceeding the track limits, which would have been good enough to get him through to Q2.

The qualifying results mean that Brit Files is now leading the way in the points standings, with ten points to his name (five for being the leading qualifier, as Tarquini is ‘invisible’ in the points, plus five pre—qualifying points).

Sunday’s first race takes place at 12:35 CET (11:35 GMT).

Q2 results

POS NO DRIVER NAT ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME GAP 1 30 Gabriele TARQUINI BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR 6 1:19.341 0.000 2 99 Josh FILES Target Competition Honda Civic Type-R TCR 7 1:19.518 0.177 3 21 Giacomo ALTOÈ Target Competition Honda Civic Type-R TCR 7 1:19.815 0.474 4 8 Luca ENGSTLER Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 3 1:20.126 0.785 5 16 Luigi FERRARA V-Action Racing Team Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR 8 1:20.229 0.888 6 88 Maxime POTTY WRT Racing Team Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 7 1:20.251 0.910 7 10 Antti BURI LMS Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR 8 1:20.695 1.354 8 11 Francisco ABREU Team NOVADRIVER Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 9 1:20.710 1.369 9 7 Aurélien COMTE DG Sport Compétition Peugeot 308 Racing Cup 9 1:20.759 1.418 10 39 Florian THOMA Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 6 1:20.916 1.575 11 44 Plamen KRALEV Kraf Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR 5 1:21.019 1.678 12 52 Giovanni ALTOÈ Giovanni Altoè Volkswagen Golf GTi DSG 8 1:21.163 1.822

Q1 results