Honda drivers sealed a remarkable one-two-three-four in WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup qualifying at the Hungaroring, as Esteban Guerrieri swept to a dominant double pole position.

The quartet and their Honda Civic Type R TCRs were imperious in wet conditions, sealing only the second top-four lockout for a customer racing brand in the WTCR – the first for Honda, and the first for one umbrella team, Münnich Motorsport – in the final part of qualifying.

They were led by Esteban, who was a cut above on qualifying day; having led both practice sessions, he then went fastest when it mattered in the first and last parts of qualifying.

Both of the 2019 WTCR runner-up’s pole-setting laps were more than half a second faster than the next-best time, which ensured Esteban scored the maximum 10 bonus points on offer and also gave the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport crew its second and third qualifying pole positions of the campaign.

Esteban will share the front row of the grid for Sunday’s third and final race with home favourite Attila Tassi, who was the Argentinian’s closest challenger in Q3.

After a quiet start to the day in practice, Attila came on strong in qualifying – banking his best starting spot of the season and his first front row since his pole for last July’s Vila Real round.

Attila’s ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport team-mate Tiago Monteiro was on his tail in third, after finally getting the opportunity to show his and the Civic Type R TCR’s potential in the damp qualifying conditions.

The Portuguese was the second-fastest Honda in the Q1 session that determines the grid for race one, going fourth fastest, but will start Sunday’s opener from the rear of the field owing to an engine change – which instead means Attila will take up fourth on the grid.

Tiago’s time nevertheless secured him two bonus points to go with the three he claimed for third – his best qualifying result since the Suzuka weekend last October – in Q3.

Nestor Girolami completed an emphatic lockout in his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Civic Type R TCR.

Less than a week on from a terrifying shunt that ended his Slovakiaring weekend early and required the team to prepare a new car, ‘Bebu’ finished seventh in the first part of qualifying – which will become sixth on the race-one grid – before securing fourth on the penultimate pole position shootout run in Q3.

All three races will take place on Sunday, with the opener kicking off at 9.15am local time.

Esteban Guerrieri

Esteban Guerrieri 86

“It doesn’t get much better than this, really! I felt as though I nailed pretty much every lap; I had no off-track moments. I’m really happy with the way I drove, but I’m even happier that I had a car at my disposal to be able to do this. I have to thank the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport team for this result, for such a great day, and also the preparation behind it as well. We learned a lot during the post-race test we did in Slovakia, so I’m delighted that work has paid off and that we added good points for our championship bid. Being joined by my team-mates in this top-four lockout is the icing on the cake, and a mega result for the team and for Honda.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Nestor Girolami

Nestor Girolami 29

“I’m delighted for the team and for Honda that we have secured this result - it’s not every day we can celebrate something like this. Even if my lap in Q3 was not perfect, I can first of all only be happy for the team and say thank you to them for getting my car ready for this weekend. Being in Q3 on its own is a great achievement, sharing the top four with my team-mates is another, but for my crew and the entire team that helped to rebuild the car it feels like something that they really deserve. Tomorrow’s conditions are likely to be completely different, so we have to turn our attention now to working out how to extract our best performance in the dry. It will be quite complicated, but we’re 100% up for the challenge.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Attila Tassi

Attila Tassi 9

“It’s a great feeling to have a front-row start for my home event, especially when you compare the situation to the start of the day in FP1, which we ended lacking a bit of track experience to our competitors due to a couple of minor issues. All day Esteban was the fastest Honda, so I didn’t expect to beat him, and have to say congratulations to him on such a fantastic job. My preparation for my Q3 lap was compromised, so sector one - which I’ve been fast in all day - was not as good as it could have been, but to finish second is amazing for Honda and for Münnich Motorsport - they did an amazing job. I’m very proud of them and want to say thank you to everybody for this result.”

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
Tiago Monteiro

Tiago Monteiro 18

“First of all, this is a great result for the entire Münnich Motorsport team, for Honda, and of course for Esteban for such an amazing job in taking two poles. We all deserved it, we’ve been fighting so hard, and we proved we have a great chassis and that what we’ve been complaining about - a lack of top speed - was not a joke. We have been missing something, so it was great to show on a twisty track in wet conditions we can really extract the best out of the chassis. I’m very happy to be back in Q3 for the first time this year, it feels great to be able to fight for the front positions again. Unfortunately I have an engine-change penalty that means I will start race one from the back, but it’s still very exciting. There’s a new situation in theory tomorrow, with full-dry conditions, but it’s similar for everyone - we’ll just try to do a better job than the others.”

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
Dominik Greiner

Dominik Greiner

Team Manager

“This is an incredible result for the team. We did a lot of work during the test day in Slovakia between the two race weekends, some of which has helped us today - which is evident in Esteban’s amazing double pole position. All four drivers and all of the crew did a fantastic job, which gives us perfect conditions to score great points tomorrow and make up ground on our rivals. So well done again to the entire team - we will now focus on replicating the job tomorrow.”

Münnich Motorsport
Mads Fischer

Mads Fischer

TCR Project Leader, JAS Motorsport

“It’s been an incredible day for our customer WTCR teams, securing this landmark qualifying result in such a competitive series. I’m delighted for all four drivers - Esteban for his double pole, Attila for a front-row start at his home track, Tiago for finally being able to show his speed in qualifying this season, and Nestor as well for bouncing straight back from his nasty accident last weekend. Naturally, tomorrow we hope that we continue to see the Civic Type R TCR converting this speed into victory.”

JAS Motorsport
WTCR Race of Hungary

Hungaroring, Hungary

WTCR 2020, Round 4

Saturday 17 Oct 2020, 18:29 Europe/London
# Driver Num Nationality Nat. Total Team Constructor Constr. Time/Gap
1 Esteban Guerrieri 86 ARG 10 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda 2m05.705
2 Attila Tassi 9 HUN 5 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda 2m06.267
3 Tiago Monteiro 18 POR 5 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda 2m06.902
4 Nestor Girolami 29 ARG 2 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda 2m06.986
5 Mikel Azcona 96 SPA 5 Zengo Motorsport Cupra 2m05.520
6 Jean-Karl Vernay 69 FRA - Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo 2m06.697
7 Nathanael Berthon 17 FRA - Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi 2m07.063
8 Yann Ehrlacher 68 FRA 3 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 2m07.293
9 Yvan Muller 100 FRA - Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 2m07.327
10 Bence Boldizs 55 HUN - Zengo Motorsport Cupra 2m08.294
11 Santiago Urrutia 12 URU - Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 2m06.789
12 Luca Engstler 8 GER - Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai 2m07.588
13 Gabriele Tarquini 30 ITA - BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai 2m07.652
14 Thed Björk 11 SWE - Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 2m07.689
15 Norbert Michelisz 1 HUN - BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai 2m07.799
16 Luca Filippi 25 ITA - Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo 2m08.015
17 Tom Coronel 31 NDL - Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi 2m08.048
18 Manuel Jose Sapag 28 ARG - Target Competition Hyundai 2m09.376
19 Nico Gruber 97 AUT - Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai 2m09.795
20 Gabor Kismarty-Lechner 99 HUN - Zengo Motorsport Cupra 2m10.360
NC Gilles Magnus 16 BEL - Comtoyou Racing Audi -
NC Aurelien Comte 34 AND - Vukovic Motorsport Renault -