Matteo Greco tops a thrilling Qualifying at Imola

Matteo Greco claimed his first ever pole position in TCR Italy as he emerged as the fastest man in a thrilling Qualifying session that saw five different drivers alternating on top of the classification. Eventually, only two tenths of a second covered the fastest laps set by the first six drivers.
Marco Pellegrini opened hostilities with a lap of 1:54.489 in his Target Competition Hyundai i30 N, but he was soon ousted by Igor Stefanovski’s 1:53.725. All of a sudden the Macedonian dropped to fifth behind Enrico Bettera (1:52.818), Salvatore Tavano (1:53.282), Pellegrini (1:53.451) and Jacopo Guidetti (1:53.691).
Pellegrini improved further and set a new provisional fastest lap of 1:52.810 just before the session was briefly disrupted by the red flag to recover Christian Voithofer CUPRA from a gravel trap.
When the session resumed, Felix Wimmer jumped to the top with a lap of 1:52.649, with Tavano moving into second (1:52.688).
But it was not over yet. Three minutes before the end of the session Stefanovski struck again and clocked a new provisional fastest lap of 1:52.608, which was not enough as Greco produced a last effort of 1:52.547 and secured the pole position. The last improvement was Bettera’s with 1:52.655 that promoted him to fourth.
Massimiliano Mugelli did not take part after he crashed in Practice when his Alfa Romeo Giulietta suffered from a brake failure.
Race 1 will start tomorrow at 16:15 local time (CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Qualifying
1. 1:52.467 – Matteo Greco (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA)
2. 1:52.608 – Igor Stefanovski (Stefanovski Racing Team, CUPRA)
3. 1:52.649 – Felix Wimmer (Wimmer Werk Motorsport, CUPRA)
4. 1:52.655 – Enrico Bettera (Pit Lane Competizioni, Audi RS 3 LMS)
5. 1:52.688 – Salvatore Tavano (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA)

Championship points
1. Bettera 43 pts; 2. Pellegrini 41; 3. Greco 35