Mitchell Cheah sets pole position on TCR Germany return

TCR Germany returnee Mitchell Cheah claimed the pole position for this afternoon’s Race 1 at the Red Bull Ring. The Malaysian youngster, called in to replace Nico Gruber, posted the fastest time of 1:37.582 in Q2, beating the previous mark set at 1:37.691 by Antti Buri. Local hero Harald Proczyk qualified in third position, while the current championship leader Dominik Fugel clocked the eighth fastest lap and so won pole position for the reversed grid for Sunday’s Race 2. However, Buri and Proczyk had reduced their gaps from Fugel by four and three points respectively and now they are 18 and 8 points behind the leader.
Hyundai Germany’s guest driver Patrick Simon created a surprise in Q1 by setting the fastest lap of 1:38.051, ahead of Buri’s 1:38.249, Dominik Fugel’s 1:38.276 and Proczyk’s 1:38.507. Series newcomer Sandro Soubek (1:38.529) and Cheah (1:38.587) were placed in fifth and sixth positions respectively, while Marcel Fugel was the last one to make the cut for Q2, though with a margin of only eight thousandths over Albert Legutko.
Buri set the first mark in Q2 with a lap of 1:37.691, but Cheah improved to 1:37.582 and then Proczyk moved into P3 with a lap of 1:37.994. Simon proved that his performance in Q1 was not by chance and completed a quartet of Hyundai cars on top of the grid, demoting Soubek to fifth.
Dominik Fugel and Jan Seyffert will share the front row of the top-eight reversed grid for Race 2, while Marcel Fugel had all his Q2 laps disallowed for track limit infringements.
Race 1 will be streamed live today at www.tcr-series.com, at 17:05, local time (CEST). 

Qualifying
1:37.582 Mitchell Cheah (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
1:37.691 Antti Buri (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
1:37.994 Harald Proczyk (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N)
1:38.098 Patrick Simon (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
1:38.190 Sandro Soubek (MAIR Racing Östtirol, audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points
1. Dominik Fugel 140 pts; 2. Harald Proczyk 132; 3. Antti Buri 122