WTCR Race of Portugal Esteban Guerrieri gave the Honda Civic Type R TCR pole position for a second successive WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup round at the start of the 2021 season, heading a 1-2-3-5 for Münnich Motorsport cars in qualifying at Estoril.
Having been fastest in the opening part of qualifying, Esteban set up his route to top spot by advancing to the shootout session with the fourth-fastest time in Q2.
His fifth pole in the WTCR, secured by 0.117 seconds, owed much to a stunning run through the final sector of the 4.182-kilometre circuit, as he earned five points towards his Drivers’ Championship total.
The record WTCR wins holder will be joined on the front row of the grid for race two by Tiago Monteiro, who qualified his ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Civic Type R TCR second fastest.
Home hero Tiago was fastest of all in Q2, and ran last of the five contenders in the shootout session as he slotted into second position. That matched his best qualifying result to date in the WTCR, having also secured that result at home in Vila Real in 2019 and at Honda’s home round at Suzuka the same year.
It meant the Nürburgring Nordschleife Race One winner made up two points on the championship leader and is now four shy of the summit.
Nestor Girolami, who took pole position at the Nürburgring three weeks ago, was third and within a quarter of a second of team-mate Esteban’s final time.
Having missed out on some track time in FP1, Bebu was pleased to secure a second-row starting position and, like Tiago, also made up ground in the title hunt by out-qualifying the points leader.
Attila Tassi capped a fine day for the Civic Type R TCR quartet by qualifying fifth.
The 22-year-old, who was second in Q1 and third in Q2, ran third in the shootout session as he sealed starting positions that will give him two opportunities to score podiums; fifth in Q3 means he will start the reversed-grid race from sixth.
