Thed Björk leads the way in both opening practice sessions in Sydney

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was the fastest driver in both practice sessions for the TCR Australia / TCR World Tour at Syndey Motorsport Park, heading Yann Ehrlacher and Santiago Urrutia in the two sessions respectively.

In the opening session, Swede Björk was seven tenths quicker than team-mate Ehrlacher with a lap of 1 minute 35.218 seconds, as the TCR World Tour entrants occupied the top seven places in the classification.

Björk then went even faster in second practice, posting a lap of 1:34.757 to beat Urrutia by 0.116 seconds as the Lynk & Co cars once again occupied the top two positions.

Urrutia had earlier been third quickest in the opening session, with Ma Qing Hua making it a Cyan Racing 1-2-3-4 at the top of the times early in the weekend.

Mikel Azcona was fifth quickest in FP1, 0.283 seconds off the pace, with the BRC Racing Hyundai driver then improving in FP2 to close in to just under two tenths off the pace in third.

The leading Audi driver in both sessions was Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch, sixth and fifth respectively in the two sessions, the Belgian failing to improve his time in the second session.

Rob Huff was the fastest Brit, putting his Audi immediately behind Vervisch in first practice, but the Comtoyou driver was half a second slower in FP2 and only 14^th.

The best of the TCR Australia drivers in FP1 was Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant in eighth, but come second practice the honour went to MPC’s Will Brown, who ultimately posted the fastest lap by a TCR Australia out of the two sessions on his way to seventh in FP2, just over a second slower than Björk.

Michael Clemente has had to withdraw from the weekend’s action due to a lack of budget, with the TCR Australia CUPRA driver targeting a return for next weekend’s season finale at Bathurst instead.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 18:00 local time (08:00 CET, 07:00 GMT), followed by race one at 20:40 local time (10:40 CET, 09:40 GMT) on Friday.

Free practice 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	8	1:35.218	–
2	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	1:35.291	0.733
3	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	8	1:35.433	0.215
4	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	8	1:35.469	0.251
5	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	1:35.501	0.283
6	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:35.501	0.283
7	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1:35.657	0.439
8	115		Tom OLIPHANT	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	1:35.903	0.685
9	9		Will BROWN	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	1:35.909	0.691
10	1		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	1:36.065	0.847
11	110		Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	1:36.173	0.955
12	130		Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:36.298	1.080
13	30		Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	1:36.416	1.198
14	74		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	9	1:36.856	1.638
15	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	1:36.989	1.771
16	76		Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	1:37.079	1.861
17	18		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:37.273	2.055
18	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	1:37.434	2.216
19	33		Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	7	1:37.595	2.377
20	41		Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	7	1:38.030	2.812
21	14		Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	1:38.153	2.935
22	22		Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:38.394	3.176
23	4		Jimmy CLAIRET	Hangcha Forklifts	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:38.823	3.605
24	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	5	2:11.889	36.672

Free practice 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:34.757	–
2	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	1:34.873	0.116
3	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:34.950	0.194
4	1		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	14	1:35.094	0.338
5	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:35.507	0.750
6	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:35.703	0.947
7	9		Will BROWN	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:35.787	1.030
8	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	1:35.870	1.113
9	30		Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:35.878	1.121
10	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	1:35.903	1.147
11	130		Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:35.932	1.176
12	115		Tom OLIPHANT	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	14	1:35.984	1.228
13	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:36.003	1.247
14	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	14	1:36.104	1.348
15	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	1:36.199	1.442
16	74		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	14	1:36.234	1.477
17	110		Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1:36.333	1.577
18	14		Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	1:36.732	1.976
19	18		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	1:36.752	1.996
20	33		Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	1:36.779	2.023
21	4		Jimmy CLAIRET	Hangcha Forklifts	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	1:37.603	2.846
22	22		Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	15	1:37.862	3.106
23	76		Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	1:38.444	3.688
24	41		Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	0	No time	N/A