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Australia
Qualifying report

Sandown TCR: Girolami storms to debut pole

WTCR regular Nestor Girolami recovered from an early mistake to secure a comfortable series debut pole position at Sandown.

Nestor Girolami, Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR

Nestor Girolami, Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR

TCR Australia

The practice pacesetter had an awkward start to the session, a mistake at Dandenong Road eight minutes in resulting in a trip through the gravel.

But his recovery was swift, the Argentine going quickest on his very next lap with a 1m15.156s.

His next lap was quicker again, a 1m14.586s stretching his advantage.

Wall Honda teammate John Martin did close the gap to 0.01s with a couple of minutes to go, Girolami responding with a remarkable 1m13.963s on his final run to grab pole.

"I'm really happy," said Girolami. "Thanks to the team, they've done na amazing job since yesterday.

"It was a scary qualifying, I made a mistake and locked a front. After that I adjusted my brake bias and tried to do a clean lap."

Supercars ace Andre Heimgartner (Kelly Holden) grabbed second at the flag, albeit more than three tenths shy of the polesitter.

Martin slipped back to third, points leader Will Brown (HMO Hyundai) set to join him on the second row.

Brown will start with a five-place advantage over chief title rival Dylan O'Keeffe, the ASM Alfa driver just ninth quickest in that session.

The first race kicks off at 1:10pm local time.

Watch all the Sandown TCR Australia action live and free from anywhere in the world thanks to Motorsport.tv.

Pos # Driver Team Car Time Gap
1   38 Nestor Girolami (ARG)   Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   1:13.9637  
2  777 Andre Heimgartner (NZ)  Kelly Racing                   Holden Astra         1:14.3147 00.3510
3   24 John Martin (NSW)       Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   1:14.4205 00.4568
4   30 William Brown (Qld)     HMO Customer Racing            Hyundai i30N         1:14.5029 00.5392
5    8 Jason Bright (Vic)      Taskforce/Melb Performance Cnt Volkswagon Golf GTI  1:14.7351 00.7714
6    7 Jordan Cox (NSW)        Garry Rogers Motorsport        Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1:15.0217 01.0580
7   50 Tony D’Alberto (Vic)    Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   1:15.3768 01.4131
8   62 Bryce Fullwood (NT)     Kelly Racing                   Holden Astra         1:15.4249 01.4612
9    9 Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic)    Ashley Seward Motorsport       Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1:16.0341 02.0704
10  34 James Moffat (Vic)      Garry Rogers Motorsport        Renault Megane RS    1:16.0353 02.0716
11   3 Garth Tander (Vic)      Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            1:16.0379 02.0742
12  97 Liam McAdam (Qld)       Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            1:16.1310 02.1673
13 100 Russell Ingall (Qld)    Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            1:16.5845 02.6208
14   2 Aaron Cameron (Vic)     Melbourne Performance Centre   Volkswagen Golf GTI  1:16.8578 02.8941
15  11 Nathan Morcom (NSW)     HMO Customer Racing            Hyundai i30N         1:17.2787 03.3150
16  33 Chris Pither (NZ)       Garry Rogers Motorsport        Renault Megane RS    1:17.8114 03.8477
17  35 Alexandra Whitley (Qld) Melbourne Performance Centre   Volkswagon Golf GTI  1:18.8787 04.9150

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