SP Compétition’s Jean-Karl Vernay and Geely Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher were fastest in the two practice sessions held on Friday at the Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit.
In the first session, Vernay went fastest with a time of 1:26.044, pipping rival Frenchman Yann Ehrlacher’s Geely by just 28-thousandths of a second at the final moment. The times were very close, with Ehrlacher’s teammate Santigo Urrutia also within a tenth of a second of Vernay’s time in third.
Thed Björk was fourth quickest, while the best-placed of the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse cars was Mikel Azcona in fifth.
Lo Sze Ho was top of the Guest Star Trophy drivers in eighth in his Evolve Racing Hyundai, while Macau’s Marcus Cheong Man Hei was the leading TCR Asia contender in 11th position at the wheel of his MacPro Racing Team Honda
At the end of the session, Ehrlacher had minor contact with the Hyundai of Bayern Yip Wai Hei, damaging the front-left of his Geely Preface, with the team having to work hard to repair it to get out for Free Practice 2.
In the second session, Urrutia set down one of the early benchmarks, but again it was Vernay who soon took over at the top of the time sheets, with the CUPRA driver setting a time of 1:25.806 just before the halfway point of the session to lead the times.
Vernay found even more pace before the close of the 30-minute practice, with a time of 1:25.275 placing the 2017 TCR International Series champion over half a second clear of Urrutia, but a final set of flying laps from Ehrlacher and Urrutia saw them usurp Vernay to first and second, with Ehrlacher’s time of 1:25.085 the fastest seen around the 3.3km circuit.
Björk and Azcona were again fourth and fifth, with local driver Ma Qing Hua sixth quickest in his Geely Preface.
Hong Kong driver Lo Sze Ho was again the top of the guest drivers in ninth overall, just over a second off the pace, while TCR Asia championship leader Diego Moran set a last-minute improvement to end up as the top of his class in tenth overall.
The next session is qualifying which gets underway tomorrow at 09:50 local time (03:50 CEST).
Picture: WSC/Paddocker
