Kumho FIA TCR World Tour points leader Yann Ehrlacher was fastest in both of the free practice sessions at the Circuito Internacional de Vila Real, leading the way ahead of his Lynk & Co teammates in the first session, before Hyundai and Honda’s drivers upped the pace in the final session.
The Cyan Racing driver led the first practice, setting his best time of 2:00.256 on his third timed lap, while a late improvement from title rival Esteban Guerrieri put him second fastest, just seven-tenths of a second away - until that time was deleted for breaching track limits at T18, leaving the result a Lynk & Co Cyan Racing 1-2-3-4.
Néstor Girolami ran deep into Turn 6 early on and he came in for a brake change, while the session was more dramatic for his teammate Mikel Azcona, who hit the tyre stack at the T19 chicane halfway through the session, causing a red flag. With the time still counting down, there were just eight minutes left at the end for drivers to set any improvements, while Azcona’s car took no further part as it required repairs to the front-right suspension.
In the second session, Ehrlacher had closer competition in the hot mid-afternoon. The French driver initially led the way ahead of all of his teammates, until Azcona bounced back from his earlier off to go second quickest at the halfway point, before finding a whole half a second to go quickest with just over five minutes to go.
Ehrlacher then found another four-tenths on Azcona to go quickest, while Guerrieri moved up to third, just six-thousandths behind Azcona, with Azcona’s teammate Norbert Michelisz improving to fifth on his final run.
The best-placed of the guest drivers in the second session was the returning Dušan Borković, tenth, while the fastest of the Portuguese drivers was Manuel Fernandes jr in 14th.
The next session is Qualifying, which gets underway at 16:40 local time (17:40 CEST).
