Enrico Bettera claims his first pole in TCR Italy

Pit Lane Competizioni’s Enrico Bettera used the superior top speed of his Audi RS3 LMS to outpace the TCR Italy field at Imola and claim his first pole position.
The 30-minute Qualifying provided a thrilling duel between Bettera and Luigi Ferrara in the V-Action Racing Alfa Romeo Giulietta who ousted each other from the top of the timesheet several times.
Eventually, Bettera posted the fastest lap of 1:52.311 with less than four minutes left on the clock and demoted Ferrara – whose best effort was 1:52.696 – to second.
Behind them there was a close battle for the other positions that saw Massimiliano Mugelli setting the third fastest lap of 1:52.964 in his MM Motorsport Honda Civic FK7 ahead of Federico Paolino who was clocked at 1:53.010 in the BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N. Current championship leader Salvatore Tavano qualified the SEAT Motorsport Italia Cupra in fifth position (1:53.139) and was followed by the Otto Motorsport Giulietta of Edoardo Cappello (1:53.325).
Andrea Larini, José Rodrigues, Jürgen Schmarl and Matteo Greco rounded off the top ten, with the latter fastest in the DSG Trophy.
The Hyundai cars of Nicola Baldan and Eric Scalvini (the fastest man in yesterday’s Practice) could not post a valid time as they were seriously damaged after a collision at T16 that prompted the red flag after only two minutes.
Race 1 will start at 15:50 CET; live streaming at and www.tcr-series.tv.