Thed Björk on top again in final practice at Vila Real
YMR’s Thed Björk topped the time sheets in the final practice session at the Vila Real circuit ahead of the SLR Volkswagen of Rob Huff, with Norbert Michelisz completing the top three in the BRC Hyundai.
Björk had led the way during the early running with a time of 2:02.070 in his YMR Hyundai i30 N TCR.
At the midway point of the session, both Björk and Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Rob Huff then went head-to-head at the same time to improve on new tyres, with Huff fastest of all in sectors one and two, but with Björk pulling it back in the third sector to stay fastest overall with a time of 2:01.107, with Huff less than a tenth of a second behind.
Rob Huff was on a better lap at the end of the session, but lost time in sector two due to traffic with Zsolt Szabo having broken another driveshaft on his Zengo Cupra TCR at the Turn 11 chicane.
Norbert Michelisz made a late improvement to go third fastest in his BRC Racing Hyundai, just two-tenths behind Björk, with Pepe Oriola leaping to fourth in the fastest of the Campos Racing-run Cupra TCRs.
Jean-Karl Vernay, visiting the track for the first time, found more pace in FP2 and wound up fifth fastest in the Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS, although was over a second from Björk’s time.
Esteban Guerrieri went sixth fastest after the chequered flag fell in the best-placed Honda, run by Münnich Motorsport, with Mehdi Bennani seventh in the second of SLR’s Volkswagens ahead of Gabriele Tarquini’s BRC Hyundai i30 N TCR.
John Filippi was ninth in his Cupra TCR, with championship leader Yann Ehrlacher completing the top ten in his Münnich Honda Civic.
Qualifying for Race 1 follows at 12:30 WEST / 13:30 CEST.
