GOAT Racing duo Ignacio Montenegro and Esteban Guerrieri led the way in a hot day of practice for the FIA TCR World Tour at Monza, with Montenegro’s time standing as the overall best of the day.
In 35 degree hot sunny weather, the Honda drivers proved to be the early pace-setters. However, it was BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona who headed the times for much of the first practice session, trading times with team-mate Norbert Michelisz before settling on a lap of 1 minute 55.390 seconds.
However, Montenegro went 0.149 seconds quicker in the final minutes of the session, leaving the Spaniard with the second-best time.
SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte was third quickest with a late improvement, 0.217 seconds adrift, ahead of BRC’s Michelisz in fourth.
Santiago Urrutia led the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co quartet in the first session in fifth, just under eight tenths of a second off the pace.
In second practice, Michelisz was on top of the times for much of the session, but he was usurped by Comte with around 12 minutes to go.
Michelisz briefly regained the top time, but it was Guerrieri who went quicker just over 30 seconds later to claim the top spot with a lap of 1:55.371, just over a tenth slower than the ultimate best set by his team-mate Montenegro in the earlier session.
Michelisz remained second, whilst Comte was third, both within a tenth of Guerrieri.
Azcona was fourth, whilst the second SP Compétition CUPRA of John Filippi was fifth.
This time, Thed Björk was the quickest Cyan Racing driver in seventh, 0.650 seconds off the pace.
Whilst MM motorsport’s Jacopo Cimenes was the best of the wildcard entries in the first session in tenth, in second practice it was Felipe Fernández in sixth who was quickest of the non-full-season entrants.
Qualifying takes place at 09:40 CEST (08:40 BST) on Saturday morning.
First practice results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 123 |  |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 1:55.241 | – |
| 2 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:55.390 | 0.149 |
| 3 | 107 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 1:55.458 | 0.217 |
| 4 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:55.712 | 0.471 |
| 5 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 1:56.011 | 0.770 |
| 6 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:56.052 | 0.811 |
| 7 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:56.115 | 0.874 |
| 8 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 1:56.166 | 0.925 |
| 9 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 1:56.222 | 0.981 |
| 10 | 82 |  |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:56.421 | 1.180 |
| 11 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:56.437 | 1.196 |
| 12 | 44 | |
Leonel PERNÍA | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:56.597 | 1.356 |
| 13 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:56.604 | 1.363 |
| 14 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:56.689 | 1.448 |
| 15 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 9 | 1:57.263 | 2.022 |
| 16 | 11 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:57.288 | 2.047 |
| 17 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Team Trico WRT | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:57.640 | 2.399 |
| 18 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 6 | 1:58.314 | 3.073 |
Second practice results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:55.371 | – |
| 2 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:55.399 | 0.028 |
| 3 | 107 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 1:55.436 | 0.065 |
| 4 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:55.517 | 0.146 |
| 5 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 11 | 1:55.903 | 0.532 |
| 6 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:55.904 | 0.533 |
| 7 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 1:56.021 | 0.650 |
| 8 | 123 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:56.050 | 0.679 |
| 9 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:56.077 | 0.706 |
| 10 | 82 | |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:56.128 | 0.757 |
| 11 | 11 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:56.179 | 0.808 |
| 12 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 1:56.239 | 0.868 |
| 13 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:56.263 | 0.892 |
| 14 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 1:56.661 | 1.290 |
| 15 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 1:56.760 | 1.389 |
| 16 | 44 | |
Leonel PERNÍA | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:56.869 | 1.498 |
| 17 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 1:57.159 | 1.788 |
| 18 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Team Trico WRT | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:58.154 | 2.783 |