Yann Ehrlacher quickest of all in final practice at Suzuka
Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher was fastest of all in the second and last practice session ahead of qualifying this afternoon at Suzuka, leading the Peugeot 308TCR of Aurélien Comte and Honda team-mate Esteban Guerrieri.
Tiago Monteiro led the time sheets for the first ten minutes in his Boutsen Ginion Racing Honda, before YMR’s Thed Björk went fastest of all in his Hyundai i30 N TCR, the first driver under 2:15 in the session.
The two Münnich Hondas then jumped to the fore, with Guerrieri leading Ehrlacher just before two-thirds of the session were up.
The session was then red-flagged when Kevin Ceccon hit a tyre stack at the Casio Triangle in his Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR, damaging his front-left suspension, with the stack requiring replacing.
When the session resumed, YMR’s Yvan Muller briefly went fastest, before he was pipped by nephew Ehrlacher, whose time of 2:12.481 stood to the end of the session.
A flurry of further improvements saw the Peugeot 308TCR of Aurélien Comte leap to second ahead of Guerrieri, while Jean-Karl Vernay was fourth fastest in his Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS.
Muller was fifth ahead of Nathanael Berthon’s Audi, with Pepe Oriola seventh in the Campos Racing Cupra TCR ahead of 2017 WTCC champion Thed Björk’s Hyundai.
Mehdi Bennani was the best-placed of the Volkswagens in ninth, after his team-mate Rob Huff’s seventh-fastest time was deleted due to breaching track limits at Turn 14, an offence for which many others were also penalised.
Championship leader Gabriele Tarquini completed the top ten in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Qualifying 1 follows at 13:00 JST (06:00 CEST).
