Santiago Urrutia continues on top in second Pau-Ville practice

Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia again was the fastest driver around the Pau-Ville circuit in the second free practice session of the WTCR opener, beating Hyundai driver Mikel Azcona by less than a tenth of a second.

Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co 03 TCR) returned to the pits after a couple of flying laps with a driveshaft issue, with his mechanics franticly working to sort out the issue.

The reigning champion returned to the track towards the end of the session, setting the fourth fastest time.

Manufacturer colleague Urrutia topped the times with 1:20.125, 0.079 seconds ahead of Elantra N TCR driver Azcona.

Néstor Girolami completed a solid session to finish in third place, driving the Honda Civic Type R TCR from Münnich Motorsport, 0.183 seconds behind Urrutia.

Thed Björk was fifth, with Tom Coronel claiming sixth for Comtoyou Racing, half-a-second off the pace.

Norbert Michelisz took the second Elantra N TCR to seventh place, ahead of Gilles Magnus (Audi RS 3 LMS) and Esteban Guerrieri (Honda Civic Type R TCR). Attila Tassi rounded off the top ten, 0.865 seconds off the pace.

“It’s been good and, if you want to put the lap together, you have to attack the kerbs, so maybe we are doing it differently,” said Urrutia after the session, referring to his team-mate’s driveshaft issues.

“Let’s see if we can keep it that way and see how it goes for quali.”

The qualifying session at Pau is scheduled for 17:30 CEST.