Jay Hanson and Jordan Cox top Phillip Island practice times

AWC MPC Racing’s Jay Hanson emerged as the fastest driver in practice for the second round of the TCR Australia season at Phillip Island.

The Audi RS 3 LMS TCR driver’s time of 1:36.204 set in the morning’s opening session was nearly three-tenths quicker than that managed by FP2 pace-setter Jordan Cox.

Hanson comes into the weekend seventh in the points standings following an up-and-down start to the season in Tasmania but ended up nearly half a second clear of nearest rival Dylan O’Keefe in his GRM Schaeffler Peugeot 308TCR.

Ex-Supercar driver Micahel Caruso was third fastest in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta, just a tenth further back from O’Keefe, with Aaron Cameron a mere two-hundredths behind in fourth.

Inaugural series champion Will Brown was fifth quickest in his Audi Sport Customer Racing RS 3 LMS TCR.

The top 10 was covered by just over a second with points leader Josh Buchan 10th quickest in his HMO Hyundai i30 N TCR, some 1.103s off the pace.

First-time winner in Tasmania, Zac Soutar could only manage 18th in the first session aboard his Honda Civic Type-R, while things were better for series returnee Michael Clemente who finished the session 11th fastest.

The second session was topped by Cox’s Peugeot 308TCR, with the margin between the Kiwi and the bottom of the top 10 reduced even further.

Cox just edged out Fabian Coulthard in the Stan Sport Honda Civic Type-r by 0.023s, with Cameron again confirming his pace with the third fastest time.

Buchan had a much improved second session to place fourth ahead of O’Keefe, while Ben Bargwanna made it four Peugeot 308TCRs in the top five, just 0.46s off the pace.

Hanson was seventh quickest ahead of Brown, with Caruso and Kody Garland completing the rest of the top 10.

Next up for TCR Australia is qualifying which is scheduled to take place 11:20 AET (01:20 CET).