Cyan Racing duo keep Lynk & co on top of the times at the Hungaroring

Friday’s TCR World Tour / TCR Europe free practice sessions were both topped by Cyan Racing drivers, with Ma Qing Hua and Yann Ehrlacher taking it in turns to keep the Lynk & Co cars at the top of the times.

In first practice, held on a dry track, it was Ma who claimed the top time with just under two minutes to go, the Chinese racer leading with a lap of 1 minute 53.828 seconds – over half a second quicker than nearest rival Néstor Girolami’s Honda.

Ehrlacher himself was third, and the only other competitor within a second of Ma’s time in an unusually spaced out session.

Reigning WTCR champion Mikel Azcona was the best of the Hyundai racers in fourth, ahead of BRC Racing team-mate and home ‘hero’ Norbert Michelisz in fifth.

The leading TCR Europe racer was MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson, the Swede in tenth overall, over two seconds off the pace of the leading World Tour racer.

Second practice later in the day was affected by heavy rain, which came just as the session started and ultimately resulted in a 20-minute delay.

Faced with tricky conditions and lap times which were over 15 seconds slower, the times did not improve much as the session went on.

Ehrlacher ultimately ended up with the best time, a 2:08.500, a mere 0.035 seconds ahead of Ma and just 0.082 seconds ahead of Girolami, the top three drivers from FP1 thus occupying the top three places in FP2 in a different order.

Santiago Urrutia made it three Cyan Racing cars in the top four, and was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Azcona was once again the best of the Hyundai drivers in fifth, whilst Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff was once again the fastest Audi driver and lead the RS3 contingent in sixth, 1.445 seconds of the pace.

Kobe Pauwels was this time the leading TCR Europe competitor in eighth, albeit over two and a half seconds off the pace in his Audi.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 10:55 CEST on Saturday (09:55 BST).

First practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:53.828	–
2	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	1:54.419	0.591
3	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:54.750	0.922
4	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:54.893	1.065
5	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:55.022	1.194
6	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	15	1:55.098	1.270
7	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:55.172	1.344
8	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:55.373	1.545
9	127		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	14	1:55.824	1.996
10	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	1:55.944	2.116
11	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:55.985	2.157
12	31		Kevin CECCON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:56.024	2.196
13	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	14	1:56.059	2.231
14	264		Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:56.151	2.323
15	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:56.181	2.353
16	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1:56.420	2.592
17	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:56.469	2.641
18	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	15	1:56.957	3.129
19	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:57.985	4.157
20	48		Mikael KARLSSON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:58.960	5.132
21	7		Daniel TKACHENKO	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	2:00.421	6.593

Second practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	2:08.500	–
2	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	2:08.535	0.035
3	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	2:08.582	0.082
4	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	2:08.766	0.266
5	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	2:09.624	1.124
6	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:09.945	1.445
7	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	2:10.778	2.278
8	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:11.063	2.563
9	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:11.361	2.861
10	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	2:11.570	3.070
11	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:11.723	3.223
12	31		Kevin CECCON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	2:12.066	3.566
13	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	2:12.695	4.195
14	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	13	2:12.807	4.307
15	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:12.878	4.378
16	127		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	4	2:12.891	4.391
17	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	2:13.130	4.630
18	48		Mikael KARLSSON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:13.441	4.941
19	264		Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	2:13.751	5.251
20	7		Daniel TKACHENKO	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	2:14.193	5.693
21	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:14.720	6.220