Luca Engstler keeps Hyundai on top in second practice at Monza

Luca Engstler posted the quickest time in the second TCR Europe series practice session at Monza, as Hyundai remained the car to beat.

The Team Engstler Hyundai i30 N TCR driver recorded a time of 1:57.009 – the fastest of the weekend so far – to go over three-tenths of a second faster than Target Competition’s Andreas Bäckman.

Bäckman’s team-mate Josh Files was third fastest, a further tenth of a second behind, with BRC Racing’s Luca Filippi completing a Hyundai sweep of the top four positions.

Santiago Urrutia was the best of the Audis in fifth, but the Uruguayan was over half a second in arrears of Engstler’s time in his Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS.

For the second session in a row, there was a red flag as Viktor Davidovski stopped at the Ascari chicane with around 17 minutes to go.

Until then, the Hyundais of Target Competition’s Mat’o Homola and M Racing’s Nelson Panciatici exchanged fastest times, with Urrutia also taking a turn at the top of the standings.

Target Competition also appeared to repeat their FP1 tactic of giving each other a tow down the long Monza straights, which helped catapult first Files, and then Bäckman to the top spot.

But Engstler’s final effort was better than everyone else, and the German finished the session with a handy margin over the rest of the field.

Files’s closes title challenger Julien Briché was eighth fastest in his JSB Compétition Peugeot 308TCR, an improvement on his opening practice result, behind Homola and Panciatici.

The second Peugeot 308TCR of Aurelién Comte was less than half a tenth behind Briché in ninth, while the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of Gilles Magnus rounded out the top 10, albeit nine-tenths of a second off Engstler.

Just outside the top ten was TCR Europe series newcomer Guilherme Salas in his Renault Mégane RS TCR in eleventh, one place ahead of Jessica Bäckman in the third of the Target Competition Hyundais.

Gianni Morbidelli was the best of the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCRs in 14th, while series returnee Stian Paulsen was 19th in his privateer Cupra TCR.

After his crash at the Lesmo curve in FP1, Brutal Fish Racing Honda driver Martin Ryba sat out the second session, with his team not having time to repair front-end damage sustained to his Civic Type R FK8 TCR.

Qualifying takes place tomorrow morning at 10:25 CET, with Race 1 scheduled to start at 16:50 CET.