Santiago Urrutia tops second practice in Budapest

Santiago Urrutia kept Cyan Racing on top of the times in the second practice session for the FIA World Touring Car Cup at the Hungaroring, with his late improvement beating home hero Norbert Michelisz.

Urrutia made a late improvement to end the session with a best lap of 1 minute 52.326 seconds, although the ultimate pace was around four tenths of a second slower than earlier in the day.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Uruguayan had earlier been the slowest driver of all in first practice, over a second a half adrift of the pace, although he explained that was due to starting the day with a longer simulation.

“It was good,” said Urrutia. “We worked with the set-up. It’s very warm, you know, probably like Aragón last year. I will have to drink a lot of water.

“I did a race run in FP1 and now focused a little more on qualifying runs and I think I found a way. That’s why they call it free practice, so you can test. We set a race pace, which was quite OK, we made some changes and went from last to P1.

“The field is very close, everyone is pushing and the times are going to be very tight. I came up with a good lap, but it’s just free practice and now we need to get it done in qualifying.”

Michelisz was the best Hyundai driver in second, just under two and a half tenths adrift of the pace-setting Lynk & Co driver.

Esteban Guerrieri improved his ranking, but not his time, from the first session, the Argentine being the top Honda driver in what were very hot conditions near the Hungarian capital.

Mikel Azcona was fourth fastest in his Hyundai, with Zengő Motorsport’s Rob Huff improving to end up in fifth, 0.573 seconds adrift.

Néstor Girolami put his Honda in sixth, ahead of the best Audi of Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus in seventh – the Audi’s generally being much slower than they had been in the slightly cooler conditions earlier in the day.

The top ten was completed by Yann Ehrlacher’s Lynk & Co, Attila Tassi’s Honda and FP1 pace-setter Thed Björk’s Lynk & Co.

The top twelve drivers were covered by under a second, with Yvan Muller and Mehdi Bennani in 11^th and 12^th respectively.

Ma Qing Hua was only 15^th, the Chinese driver reporting a suspension issue with his Lynk & Co 03 TCR.

Nathanaël Berthon had earlier been second fastest in the first session, but could only put his Audi in 16^th this time around, over a second off the pace.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:35 CEST (14:35 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	12		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	16	1:52.326	–
2	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	17	1:52.564	0.238
3	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	14	1:52.729	0.403
4	96		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	16	1:52.751	0.425
5	79		Rob HUFF	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	15	1:52.899	0.573
6	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	1:53.028	0.702
7	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	18	1:53.061	0.735
8	68		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	15	1:53.086	0.760
9	9		Attila TASSI	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	18	1:53.267	0.941
10	11		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	1:53.319	0.993
11	100		Yvan MULLER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	14	1:53.319	0.993
12	25		Mehdi BENNANI	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	15	1:53.319	0.993
13	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	13	1:53.344	1.018
14	99		Dániel NAGY	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	16	1:53.436	1.110
15	55		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	1:53.497	1.171
16	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	20	1:53.584	1.258
17	18		Tiago MONTEIRO	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	19	1:53.794	1.468