DG Sport Compétition’s Aurélien Comte secured pole position for the opening World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at Suzuka, after edging out Kevin Ceccon’s Alfa Romeo in an unexpected front row.

Ceccon had set the pace on the first run of fast laps, after showing flashes of pace in second practice before collecting a tyre stack at the final chicane and ending his session prematurely.

With his Alfa Romeo Giulietta repaired for qualifying, the Italian racer nearly gave the marque a maiden WTCR pole before Comte went a tenth clear on his second flyer.

- Advertisement -

Esteban Guerrieri had threatened to better the Frenchman’s time with purple in sectors one and two before being held up by Gabriele Tarquini in what was a long queue of traffic.

Guerrieri’s Münnich Motorsport teammate Yann Ehrlacher joins him on an all-Honda second row of the grid for the opening contest, with two Hyundai’s locking out the third row with Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller fifth and sixth respectively.

The best of the Volkswagens was Mehdi Bennani, who continued his impressive form in seventh ahead of Norbert Michelisz.

Jean-Karl Vernay had seemed to struggle for pace throughout the session, but the Wuhan race one winner did well to salvage a lap good enough for ninth in the closing moments.

First practice pace-setter Mat’o Homola completed the top ten, despite slight bodywork damage to his Peugeot 308 TCR after clipping the tyre stack at turn four and necessitating a brief red flag period to put it back in position.

Popular returnee Tiago Monteiro qualified in a creditable 20th, just 1.4s adrift of Comte’s benchmark time.

Behind him, race three Wuhan winner Gordon Shedden struggled, only managing 22nd position.

Qualifying result