Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Pepe Oriola continued to set the pace in second practice for the TCR International Series in Singapore, with WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli closing the gap in second.
Oriola’s margin was reduced to his Honda rival compared to first practice, with Morbidelli clawing back a tenth to end up 0.341 seconds slower than the Spaniard.
“It was very hot, but I loved the track,” said Oriola. “We changed quite a few things between the first and second session and the car improved much, but I think this is also due to the track getting cleaner and faster.
“I am pretty satisfied with the balance, but the results do not mean much. I am sure the Honda cars will be much faster tomorrow in qualifying.”
Target Competition’s Stefano Comini improved markedly from first practice, with the Swiss racer ending up third fastest, ahead of the SEAT of Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Jordi Gené.
The second WestCoast Honda of Kevin Gleason was fifth fastest, ahead of the top Engstler Motorsport Volkswagen of Mikhail Grachev in sixth.
Sergey Afanasyev was seventh fastest, just over a second off the pace, with the Russian having been second quickest in the earlier first practice session.
Completing the top ten were Engstler Motorsport’s Lorenzo Veglia, WestCoast Racing’s René Münnich and Target Competition’s Loris Hezemans.
The top TCR Asia competitor was Hong Kong’s Frank Yu in 12th, who was even faster than the regular international racer Fernando Monje in his Opel Astra in 13th.
Kenneth Ma, driving the sole Ford Focus for FRD Ford HK Racing Team, was the slowest driver, with the Hong Kong racer stopping on the track due to a technical failure.
The reason for the absence of the Top Run Motorsport Subaru was also clarified. The Malpensa-based team had originally tried to fly the car to Singapore via Luxembourg, but the car was left in Luxembourg due to limited payload restrictions and later returned to Italy.
The team then planned to fly the car to Seoul in South Korea, but a technical fault caused the plane to turn back. When it did eventually arrive in Asia there were no scheduled flights to take it to Singapore. The car is expected to make its first appearance on Saturday.
Qualifying takes place on Saturday, with no further TCR track action on Friday.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:27.223 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 2:27.564 | 0.341 |
| 3 | 25 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:27.589 | 0.366 |
| 4 | 88 | Jordi GENÉ | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:27.635 | 0.412 |
| 5 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 2:27.799 | 0.576 |
| 6 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf TCR | 9 | 2:27.956 | 0.733 |
| 7 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:28.492 | 1.269 |
| 8 | 7 | Lorenzo VEGLIA | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:29.110 | 1.887 |
| 9 | 23 | René MÜNNICH |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 7 | 2:29.455 | 2.232 |
| 10 | 15 | Loris HEZEMANS |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:29.735 | 2.512 |
| 11 | 4 | Tomas ENGSTRÖM |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf TCR | 9 | 2:29.807 | 2.584 |
| 12 | 99 | Frank YU |  |
Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:31.872 | 4.649 |
| 13 | 19 | Fernando MONJE | |
Campos Racing | Opel Astra OPC | 9 | 2:32.759 | 5.536 |
| 14 | 68 | Michael CHOI | |
Prince Racing Hong Kong | Honda Civic TCR | 9 | 2:33.348 | 6.125 |
| 15 | 56 | Samson CHAN | |
Roadstar Racing Team | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:34.460 | 7.237 |
| 16 | 66 | Filipe Clemente DE SOUZA |  |
Roadstar Racing Team | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:34.834 | 7.611 |
| 17 | 78 | George CHOU |  |
Roadstar Racing Team | SEAT León Racer | 9 | 2:34.870 | 7.647 |
| 18 | 35 | Rafaël GALIANA |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:35.160 | 7.937 |
| 19 | 38 | Kenneth LAU | |
Prince Racing Hong Kong | Honda Civic TCR | 9 | 2:35.183 | 7.960 |
| 20 | 44 | MAK Hing Tak | |
Campos Racing | Opel Astra OPC | 7 | 2:47.410 | 20.187 |
| 21 | 13 | Kenneth MA | |
FRD Ford HK Racing Team | Ford Focus ST | 3 | 2:47.424 | 20.201 |
| 22 | 51 | Luca RANGONI | |
Top Run Motorsport | Subaru Sti TCR | – | No time | N/A |