Yann Ehrlacher topped both of Saturday’s FIA TCR World Tour practice sessions on the streets of Vila Real in Portugal, going even quicker in the second session to edge out Mikel Azcona by 0.371 seconds.
Cyan Racing’s Ehrlacher had topped the morning session with a lap of 2 minutes 0.256 seconds, and went marginally faster in the afternoon session with a lap of 2:00.190, still slower than the qualifying lap record around the Portuguese circuit.
With five minutes to go Azcona, who had earlier hit a tyre stack in first practice and been forced to sit out the remainder of the session, then went fastest, before Ehrlacher found four tenths of a second to pip the BRC Racing driver in the final minutes.
GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri was once again the best of the Honda drivers in third, a mere 0.006 seconds further back, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia in fourth.
Fifth fastest was BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz, the only other driver within a second of the pace, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk in sixth.
BRC Racing’s Néstor Girolami was seventh, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua in eighth.
SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte was the leading CUPRA driver in ninth, whilst Dušan Borković was the quickest of the series newcomers in tenth.
Qualifying gets underway at 16:40 WEST (16:40 BST, 17:40 CEST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 2:00.190 | – |
| 2 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 2:00.561 | 0.371 |
| 3 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 2:00.567 | 0.377 |
| 4 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 2:00.628 | 0.438 |
| 5 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 2:01.184 | 0.994 |
| 6 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 2:01.269 | 1.079 |
| 7 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 2:01.374 | 1.184 |
| 8 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 2:01.403 | 1.213 |
| 9 | 107 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 11 | 2:01.703 | 1.513 |
| 10 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 2:02.532 | 2.342 |
| 11 | 11 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 2:02.652 | 2.462 |
| 12 | 123 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 2:02.814 | 2.624 |
| 13 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 2:03.127 | 2.937 |
| 14 | 77 |  |
Manuel FERNANDES JR | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 2:03.607 | 3.417 |
| 15 | 59 | |
Daniel TEIXEIRA | JT59 Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 2:04.604 | 4.414 |
| 16 | 14 |  |
Michel FERNANDES | J. Santos Competição | Peugeot 308 TCR | 13 | 2:14.364 | 14.174 |
| 17 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |