Norbert Nagy broke the local stranglehold on the FIA European Touring Car Cup action in Vila Real by scoring his maiden pole position in an eventful qualifying session.

The session was twice red-flagged after the Lema Racing SEATs of Igor Stefanovski and Fábio Mota crashed in separate incidents. Double FIA European Hill Climb champion Stefanovski, from Macedonia, had been enjoying his most competitive showing so far in his rookie ETCC season this weekend, while practice pacesetter Mota was leading the session when he hit trouble due to a reported brake issue on a downhill section.

After Mota's car was recovered, Nagy went to the top of the times to claim pole on a weekend when his namesake Daniel Nagy is making his WTCC debut for their Zengő Motorsport team. The Hungarian was 0.418 seconds faster than his nearest rival, local driver Manuel Fernandes, who secured a guest entry for his home round of the ETCC.

“It was very bad to see this drama on track, two cars in total but I had a very big slipstream and I just do this lap and I can’t believe it, it was a surprise for me,” said Nagy. “On a track where it’s hard to overtake the qualifying was very important but the [reverse-grid] second race will be very hard. After my big crash at the Nordschleife, my goal is not only to win but to save the car.”

ETCC Super 2000 Cup title leader Petr Fulín took third, while Mota’s time was good enough for fourth. Rikli Motorsport Honda Civic drivers Peter Rikli and Kris Richard took fifth and seventh respectively, split by fellow Swiss driver Christjohannes Schreiber. Mladen Lalušić was eighth and Stefanovski ninth.

Super 1600 points leader Niklas Mackschin claimed the category pole in his Ford Fiesta, a second ahead of Peugeot 207 driver Kevin Hilgenhövel. Tomáš Korený was third in class, followed by Andreas Rinke, Daniel Niermann and Ksenia Niks.

“I’m really happy to be on pole position, for the street circuit it’s really important because to overtake here is not really good,” said German driver Mackschin. “I had one good lap after the red flag so it was okay for me. It was really warm in the car that was my problem. I hope to repeat this result tomorrow.”

Race 1 begins from a rolling start at 10h20 local time with Race 2 from a standing start at 11h30 with the top eight finishers from Race 1 lining up in reverse order. Both races are scheduled for 11 laps and will be broadcast live on Eurosport 2.