Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz topped the first two practice sessions at the Macau Guia Race in their Hyundai cars, with Azcona setting the day’s best time in the first session. Outgoing champion Michelisz was then ahead at the end of the second session when it was red-flagged with two minutes to go.
In the first practice, Yann Ehrlacher, Azcona, and Michelisz all took turns at the top of the time sheets. Ehrlacher set the first benchmark but was quickly bettered by Azcona before the first ten minutes were up. The session was then briefly red-flagged when the Hyundai of Andy Liang Wenyao stopped at the Melco hairpin and required recovery.
When the session resumed, Michelisz took over by just seven-thousandths of a second ahead of Azcona, until Ehrlacher set a time of 2:29.510, over four-tenths of a second clear. Azcona however left it until the final moments to set a sensational final flying lap on new tyres to go 1.3 seconds clear of Ehrlacher and lead the session with a time of 2:28.244, closing in on the qualifying record set by Michelisz two years ago.
In the second session, Ehrlacher set the first target, but he was almost instantly pipped by Azcona with a time of 2:29.104, with the Spanish driver leading the first ten minutes of the session. After ten minutes, Michelisz took over at the top with a time of 2:28.386, and this time would keep him on top for the rest of the session.
There were a few near misses at the Lisboa bend, as both the GOAT Racing Honda cars of Esteban Guerrieri and Pepe Oriola locked up and ran wide, with Oriola also once narrowly missing the tyre wall at the sharp right-hander.
Ehrlacher had improved to P2, just over half a second behind Michelisz before the session was red-flagged with the Hyundai of Ryan MacMillan stopping on circuit. MacMillan had hit the wall at Maternity and had tried to get the car back to the pit lane but eventually stopped with suspension damage ending the session before most drivers had a chance to complete their final runs on new tyres.
Next is qualifying, which gets underway at 12:10 local time (05:10 CET) tomorrow.
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
