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Petr Fulín won the qualifying for the season opener of TCR Eastern Europe at Oschersleben. The Czech driver struggled with a technical issue on his Cupra the whole time, but in the last possible moment, he set the fastest lap and secured pole position ahead of series debutant Adam Kout.
The first qualifying session of the 2023 season was supposed to show the distribution of power for this year’s championship. It was already clear in the practice sessions that hot contenders included Petr Fulín and Maťo Homola, who had competed against each other in the ETCC era. When the green light came on and the qualifying started, new opponents emerged for these two favorites. Adam Kout, Homola’s teammate from Hyundai Janík Motorsport, also held his position at the front, and for some time, the first place was held by Davit Kajaia from the Mertel Motorsport team.
This quartet left their opponents behind by several tenths, and it was clear that they would fight for pole-position. In the last few minutes, Adam Kout, returning to motorsport after a three-year break, took the lead, but in the last possible moment, Petr Fulín won the pole position with a lead of 0.116 seconds over Kout. The huge joy of the entire team, including Fulín, was underlined by the fact that Fulín had a broken shock absorber throughout the qualifying, and the car didn’t work as it should have. However, it didn’t stop Fulín on his way to first place.
Homola finished third, just 0.164 seconds behind the pole position time. Davit Kajaia finished fourth. Kajaia’s teammate Rene Kircher will start from fifth, and Polish youngster Carlo Czepiel from Hyundai Janík Motorsport will start from sixth.
The fourth row is occupied by the Aditis Racing team with Tobias Poschik and Sebastian Steibel. While the fourth row is all about the Audi cars, the fifth row belongs to Cupra cars. Petr Čížek (Expres Auto Racing) will start from ninth, and Carol Wittke (Fullinrace Academy) will start from tenth.
See the complete qualifying result TCR – Qualifying
