Thed Björk and Néstor Girolami top practice times in Zhuzhou

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk and BRC Racing’s Néstor Girolami posted the fastest times in the FIA TCR World Tour practice sessions at the Zhuzhou International Circuit in China on Friday.

Björk posted the quickest lap of the day in the second practice session, going a tenth of a second quicker than Girolami’s time earlier in the day to end the day as the overall best driver.

Björk’s effort of 1 minute 44.343 seconds came in FP2 and was good enough to see him clear BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona by two tenths of a second in the session.

Ultimately though Azcona’s time would see him third quickest in the combined times, with four of the five best laps coming in second practice.

SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte, again in the field’s sole CUPRA, was fourth fastest overall, whilst Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua was fifth, with team-mates Santiago Urrutia and Yann Ehrlacher directly behind in sixth and seventh overall respectively.

The top ten overall was completed by HMO Customer Racing’s Will Brown, Evolve Racing’s Lo Sze Ho and GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri, with only the top ten drivers covered by a second in the combined classification.

Diego Moran was the top TCR Asia competitor, 14^th in the combined times, although it had earlier been Chan Chung Leung who was quickest of the regional series in FP1.

FP2 had a brief red flag stoppage after Chan crashed into the barriers on his fourth lap, preventing him from setting a time.

Qualifying gets underway at 10:00 local time (03:00 CET, 02:00 GMT) on Saturday.

First practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:44.430	–
2	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:44.915	0.485
3	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:44.983	0.553
4	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:45.037	0.607
5	301		Will BROWN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:45.050	0.620
6	107		Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	13	1:45.101	0.671
7	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:45.127	0.697
8	123		Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	1:45.497	1.067
9	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:45.533	1.103
10	281		LO Sze Ho	Evolve Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	1:45.557	1.127
11	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:45.693	1.263
12	5		Ryan MACMILLAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:46.551	2.121
13	217		CHAN Chun Leung	Norris Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	1:46.745	2.315
14	86		JIANG Nan	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	15	1:46.757	2.327
15	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	1:46.990	2.560
16	23		Diego MORAN	DM23 Ecuador Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	13	1:47.205	2.775
17	288		Sean CHANG Chien Shang	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:47.256	2.826
18	56		Benny SANTOSO	Z Speed Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:47.923	3.493
19	297		YANG Haojie	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:48.138	3.708
20	69		Andy LIANG Wenyao	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:49.537	5.107
21	381		Reinghbert G. DIWA	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:49.695	5.265
22	310		WANG Yiming	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:54.138	9.708

Second practice results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:44.343	–
2	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	1:44.570	0.227
3	107		Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	1:44.738	0.395
4	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:44.766	0.423
5	301		Will BROWN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:44.990	0.647
6	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	1:45.008	0.665
7	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	1:45.069	0.726
8	281		LO Sze Ho	Evolve Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:45.140	0.797
9	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	1:45.233	0.890
10	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	1:45.490	1.147
11	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:45.617	1.274
12	5		Ryan MACMILLAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	1:45.636	1.293
13	23		Diego MORAN	DM23 Ecuador Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	1:46.157	1.814
14	123		Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	13	1:46.336	1.993
15	56		Benny SANTOSO	Z Speed Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:47.486	3.143
16	86		JIANG Nan	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:47.630	3.287
17	288		Sean CHANG Chien Shang	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	1:47.855	3.512
18	297		YANG Haojie	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:49.211	4.868
19	381		Reinghbert G. DIWA	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:49.234	4.891
20	69		Andy LIANG Wenyao	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:49.877	5.534
21	217		CHAN Chun Leung	Norris Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	3	No time	N/A
22	310		WANG Yiming	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	0	No time	N/A

Combined times

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	24	1:44.343	–
2	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	19	1:44.430	0.087
3	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	20	1:44.570	0.227
4	107		Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	24	1:44.738	0.395
5	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	23	1:44.766	0.423
6	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	22	1:44.915	0.572
7	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	22	1:44.983	0.640
8	301		Will BROWN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	20	1:44.990	0.647
9	281		LO Sze Ho	Evolve Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	22	1:45.140	0.797
10	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	19	1:45.233	0.890
11	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	19	1:45.490	1.147
12	123		Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	25	1:45.497	1.154
13	5		Ryan MACMILLAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	25	1:45.636	1.293
14	23		Diego MORAN	DM23 Ecuador Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	24	1:46.157	1.814
15	217		CHAN Chun Leung	Norris Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	15	1:46.745	2.402
16	86		JIANG Nan	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	25	1:46.757	2.414
17	288		Sean CHANG Chien Shang	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	21	1:47.256	2.913
18	56		Benny SANTOSO	Z Speed Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	1:47.000	2.657
19	297		YANG Haojie	Z.SPEED N	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	1:48.138	3.795
20	381		Reinghbert G. DIWA	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	25	1:49.234	4.891
21	69		Andy LIANG Wenyao	Eurasia Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	24	1:49.537	5.194
22	310		WANG Yiming	RevX Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:54.138	9.795