Guerrieri and Comte lead the way in TCR World Tour practice

Esteban Guerrieri and Aurélien Comte topped the times in the opening practice sessions for the FIA TCR World Tour in México, with Cyan Racing drivers also featuring closely inside the top four.

In the first session, GOAT Racing’s Guerrieri posted a lap of 1 minute 34.655 seconds to edge out Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher early on around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

Guerrieri’s team-mate Ignacio Montenegro put his Honda in third, followed by the trio of remaining Cyan Racing drivers – Santiago Urrutia in fourth, Thed Björk in fifth and Ma Qing Hua in sixth, the only other drivers to be within a second of the pace.

Comte was the best CUPRA in FP1 in seventh, ahead of SP Compétition team-mate John Filippi in eighth.

The top ten was completed by the leading Méxican racer Julio Rejón and BRC Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz as the leading Hyundai.

Rejón is a TCR México regular but has entered as a FIA TCR World Tour participant this weekend, which means that the top TCR México driver was actually Juan Pablo Sierra in 15^th in the Centur Silen Petrol Racing CUPRA.

In the end, Guerrieri’s time in FP1 would be the quickest of the day, as Comte’s top time in second practice, a lap of 1:34.812, was a tenth and a half slower than the Honda, set at the end of the session.

Three Lynk & Co drivers – Urrutia, Ehrlacher and Björk – were next up, albeit Urrutia was over three tenths behind Comte.

Montenegro was the best Honda this time in fifth, just under eight tenths from the pace, but suffered from a transmission failure during the session.

Rodrigo Rejón was the top Méxican driver in FP2 in sixth, whilst Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona was seventh – once again only one Elantra driver made it into the top ten as the BRC team seemingly struggled for pace.

Gerardo Nieto was the top TCR México driver in 15^th in the RE Motorsport Audi he is sharing with Perez de Lara and Horia Chirigut.

Qualifying takes place at 09:30 local time on Friday (16:30 BST, 17:30 CEST).

First practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	1:34.655	–
2	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:34.735	0.080
3	123		Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	1:34.991	0.336
4	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:35.139	0.484
5	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:35.181	0.526
6	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:35.603	0.948
7	107		Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	10	1:35.978	1.323
8	127		John FILIPPI	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	13	1:35.991	1.336
9	1		Julio REJÓN	ProRally Mothers	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	10	1:36.286	1.631
10	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	1:36.415	1.760
11	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:36.529	1.874
12	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:36.561	1.906
13	55		Rodrigo REJÓN	ProRally Mothers	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	12	1:36.588	1.933
14	18		Michael JOURDAIN	Peralta Racing Team	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	1:36.680	2.025
15	88		Juan Pablo SIERRA	Centur Silen Petrol Racing	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	1:36.961	2.306
16	45		ZANELLA – ZANELLA	Z Racing Team	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	4	1:38.863	4.208
17	33		OREA – DÍAZ – SLOAN	Orea Ross Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:39.715	5.060
18	34		Carlo ZESATI	Zesati Racing VP Garage 34	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:39.789	5.134
19	2		CREEL – SANDOVAL	RE Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	1:39.839	5.184
20	12		NIETO PÉREZ DE LARA CHIRIGUT	RE Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:39.958	5.303
21	44		César Tiberio JIMÉNEZ	Orangino Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:40.239	5.584
22	35		ABED – DOMÍNGUEZ – ABED	Apycsa Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:41.503	6.848
23	7		MONTOYA – HERNÁNDEZ – SÁNCHEZ	M&M Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	6	1:49.582	14.927
24	43		ZESATI – ZESATI	Zesati Racing VP Garage 34	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	No time	N/A

Second practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	107		Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	12	1:34.812	–
2	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	13	1:35.150	0.338
3	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	14	1:35.263	0.451
4	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	13	1:35.488	0.676
5	123		Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	3	1:35.590	0.778
6	55		Rodrigo REJÓN	ProRally Mothers	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	13	1:35.671	0.859
7	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:35.694	0.882
8	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:35.711	0.899
9	127		John FILIPPI	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	1:35.738	0.926
10	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	18	1:35.806	0.994
11	1		Julio REJÓN	ProRally Mothers	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	13	1:35.855	1.043
12	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:35.878	1.066
13	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:36.177	1.365
14	18		Michael JOURDAIN	Peralta Racing Team	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	13	1:36.497	1.685
15	12		Gerardo NIETO	RE Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	1:36.972	2.160
16	88		SIERRA – CERVANTES	Centur Silen Petrol Racing	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	1:37.219	2.407
17	45		ZANELLA – ZANELLA	Z Racing Team	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	13	1:37.398	2.586
18	2		CREEL – SANDOVAL	RE Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	1:37.602	2.790
19	34		Carlo ZESATI	Zesati Racing VP Garage 34	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	1:38.095	3.283
20	44		César Tiberio JIMÉNEZ	Orangino Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	1:39.328	4.516
21	35		ABED – DOMÍNGUEZ – ABED	Apycsa Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:39.411	4.599
22	33		OREA – DÍAZ – SLOAN	Orea Ross Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:40.269	5.457
23	43		ZESATI – ZESATI	Zesati Racing VP Garage 34	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	1:40.541	5.729
24	7		MONTOYa – HERNÁNDEZ – SÁNCHEZ	M&M Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	3	1:56.119	21.307