The first two practice sessions of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour weekend at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy were led by GOAT Racing Honda drivers Ignacio Montenegro and Esteban Guerrieri, in a pair of sessions in which the air temperature was 35 degrees in the hot Italian sunshine.
The first session was led most of the way through by the Hyundai of Mikel Azcona, with the Spanish driver’s 1:55.390 keeping him at the top until the final few minutes of the session, when Ignacio Montenegro jumped ahead with a time of 1:55.241, just over a tenth of a second quicker.
Aurélien Comte set a late improvement himself in the SP Compétition CUPRA to go third quickest, while Santiago Urrutia was the best-placed of the Lynk & Co contingent in fifth, just under eight tenths off the pace.
The best of the wild card entries in the first session was newcomer Jacopo Cimenes, with the MM Motorsport Honda driver setting the tenth quickest time on his return to the series.
In the second session, it was again a Hyundai, that of Norbert Michelisz, that led the first half of the session, with two times in the high 1:55s, until with just over 12 minutes to go, Comte went over three-tenths of a second faster than the Hungarian to take over. With five minutes to go, Michelisz grabbed the spot back, before he was soon deposed by Guerrieri who clocked a time of 1:55.371 just 28-thousandths of a second quicker. A late improvement from Michelisz’s teammate Mikel Azcona put him fourth, while the best-placed of the wild cards was Felipe Fernández, just over half a second down on teammate Guerrieri’s time.
The best-placed of the Lynk & Cos was Thed Björk in seventh, while Jacopo Cimenes again impressed as the fastest of the Italian guest drivers, tenth overall in a session in which the top 14 cars were all within the same second.
Qualifying is next at 09:40 CEST on Saturday morning.
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
