Jessica Bäckman leads heavily disrupted second practice session at the Hungaroring

Target Competition driver Jessica Bäckman led a very short final practice session at the Hungaroring in her Hyundai i30 N TCR , with the whole field having just time for a short two-lap run after two red flag stoppages in the scheduled 30-minute practice.

First, Georgian driver Davit Kajaia, making his touring car return after a year away, crashed out at Turn 4 in his PCR Sport Cupra TCR, bringing out the first red flag before anyone had set a lap.

The clock continued to count down under the red flag, and when the session restarted, before any times were set it was Andreas Bäckman who brought out the next red flag, with the Swede spinning off into the tyre barriers at Turn 3 in his Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR.

The car was quickly recovered, but it took the marshals the best part of ten minutes to repair the tyre barriers as the clock continued to count down again.

The session resumed with just eight minutes remaining, leaving the 37-car field of TCR Europe and Eastern Europe series cars with very limited time to get ready for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

DG Sport Competition driver Aurélien Comte led went to the top of the time sheets after his first lap with a time of 1:54.253, but he was soon deposed by Target Competition’s Jessica Bäckman, who went fastest of all in her Hyundai i30 N TCR by 0.095 seconds.

Bäckman’s Target team-mate Dusan Borkovic jumped up to third at the end of the session, with Maxime Potty the best-placed of the Volkswagens in fourth, racing for WRT.

Josh Files was fifth in his Target Hyundai i30 N TCR ahead of Slovakian team-mate Mat’o Homola, with the M Racing Hyundai of Nelson Panciatici seventh.

The top ten was filled out by Comtoyou Racing Audi driver Gilles Magnus, and the two Peugeot 308TCRs of Teddy Clairet and Julien Briche.

Qualifying for tomorrow’s races is scheduled for 16:00 CEST.