Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Mikhail Grachev topped the times in second practice for the TCR International Series at the Red Bull Ring, putting the new Volkswagen Golf TCR car on top in its first weekend of competition.
Russian driver Grachev was at the top of the times throughout second practice, ending up a narrow 0.040 seconds faster than the WestCoast Racing Honda Civic of Gianni Morbidelli in second.
Pol Rosell showed the pace of the new Golf by putting his car third fastest for the second successive session, just 0.058 seconds behind his team-mate.
Target Competition’s Stefano Comini ended up as the fastest SEAT driver in fourth, ahead of the Craft-Bamboo Racing trio of Pepe Oriola, Jordi Gené and Sergey Afanasyev.
Andrea Belicchi was eight fastest in his Target SEAT, just over half a second off the pace, ahead of an improving Igor Skuz in ninth and Lorenzo Veglia in tenth.
In total 11 cars were within a second of the pace, with the Honda of Kevin Gleason just inside the margin.
The Proteam Racing Ford Focus of Diego Romanini completed just a handful of laps as the car continues to struggle with teething technical troubles, ending up over 16 seconds off the pace.
Qualifying takes place at 15:30 BST (16:30 CEST).
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf TCR | 15 | 1:40.593 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 11 | 1:40.633 | 0.040 |
| 3 | 42 | Pol ROSELL |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf TCR | 16 | 1:40.651 | 0.058 |
| 4 | 25 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 15 | 1:40.738 | 0.145 |
| 5 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 18 | 1:40.739 | 0.146 |
| 6 | 88 | Jordi GENÉ | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 14 | 1:41.069 | 0.476 |
| 7 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 12 | 1:41.079 | 0.486 |
| 8 | 33 | Andrea BELICCHI | |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 14 | 1:41.140 | 0.547 |
| 9 | 20 | Igor SKUZ |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 12 | 1:41.167 | 0.574 |
| 10 | 7 | Lorenzo VEGLIA | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | SEAT León Racer | 16 | 1:41.559 | 0.966 |
| 11 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 11 | 1:41.589 | 0.996 |
| 12 | 43 | Dániel NAGY |  |
Zengő Motorsport | SEAT León Racer | 13 | 1:41.763 | 1.170 |
| 13 | 41 | Michela CERRUTI | |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 14 | 1:42.378 | 1.785 |
| 14 | 40 | Gabriele MAROTTA |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 15 | 1:45.163 | 4.570 |
| 15 | 72 | Diego ROMANINI | |
Proteam Racing | Ford Focus RS | 5 | 1:57.075 | 16.482 |