D’Alberto takes QR TCR pole, O’Keeffe qualifies 15th

Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series leader Tony D’Alberto had qualified on pole position for Round 5 at Queensland Raceway as his nearest rivals for the title missed Qualifying 2.

Dylan O’Keeffe started the weekend just 14 points behind the Wall Racing driver at the top of the table but only managed to put his Peugeot 308 into 15th on the starting grid for this afternoon’s 21-lapper.

In taking pole, by a margin of 0.1128s, D’Alberto extended his series lead to 16 points, while the efforts of Team Soutar Motorsport’s Zac Soutar mean that there will be two Honda Civic Type Rs on the front row this afternoon.

Melbourne Performance Centre’s Will Brown qualified third in an Audi RS 3 LMS and will have the HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N of Bailey Sweeny alongside him for the start of Race 1.

Brown was the Practice 1 fast man and he was on top again once the field started to close in on maximum pace in Qualifying 2, clocking a 1:12.7303s on his third timed lap.

However, D’Alberto had marked himself out as the man to beat based on his performance in Qualifying 1 and he would shift the fastest lap to a 1:12.5223s next time through.

Brown set a 1:12.6837s to consolidate second before he was pipped by Soutar on a 1:12.6351s inside the final four minutes.

Sweeny went as quick as a 1:12.7866s, with Jay Hanson putting the newer MPC Audi into fifth courtesy of a 1:12.8077s.

Hanson was, in fact, the only other driver in the top five in the series to make it through to the second, 10-minute stanza of qualifying.

Rounding out the top 10 were Nathan Morcom (Hyundai), Luke King (Hyundai), Aaron Cameron (Peugeot), Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot), and Michael Caruso (Alfa Romeo).

Back, in Qualifying 1, D’Alberto was quickest on a 1:12.7963s from Brown on a 1:12.8579s.

Lachlan Mineeff (Audi) was bumped out of the top 10 by Bargwanna with less than two minutes to go and could not get back in, with the privateer set to start 11th.

Josh Buchan (Hyundai), who won Race 1 of the previous event of the season in Sydney, could only manage 12th, but there was an even bigger surprise in 15th position.

That was O’Keeffe (Peugeot) at 0.1856s outside the top 10, while GRM team-mate James Moffat (Renault) qualified only 17th at another tenth off the pace.

Race 1 at the Queensland event of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships starts at 16:15 local time/AEST and will be stream live and ad-free on Stan Sport.

Results: Qualifying 2

Results: Qualifying 1