Photo: WTCR

Yann Ehrlacher tops opening Nürburgring practice as Guerrieri crashes

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Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Yann Ehrlacher emerged as the quickest driver in the opening practice session on the Nürburgring Nordschleife as Esteban Guerrieri crashed.

The reigning double champion posted a time of 8:54.143 to end up under a tenth of a second faster than team-mate Santiago Urrutia.

BRC Hyundai N Sqaudra Corse’s Mikel Azcona was third quickest in his Elantra N TCR, 0.099s adrift of the fastest time.

The top 10 was largely dominated by Lynk & Co and Audi with the latter finishing the 35-minute session with four of its RS 3 LMS TCRs in the mix.

Notably, Honda struggled with Tiago Monteiro the highest placed Civic Type-R in 12th.

Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus was the early pacesetter in his Audi, setting a time of 8:56.741, a fraction under half a second quicker than team-mate Nathanaël Berthon, with Urrutia, Huff, Tom Coronel and Thed Björk completing the top six

Urrutia then improved to go fastest, beating Magnus and Berthon, with Mehdi Bennani leaping to fourth.

Leading the points coming into the weekend, Girolami’s first proper lap was good enough for the eighth fastest time, while team-mate Guerrieri had a half-spin at Turn 9 on the Grand Prix loop.

Guerrieri then lost control of his Honda at the entry to Adenauer, slewing across the road and hitting the barrier with just under nine minutes remaining.

While Guerrieri’s incident appeared to be driver error, a number of drivers reported issues with tyre delaminations and punctures throughout the session.

The Argentinian’s car was subsequently towed back after a delay.

Meanwhile, Erhlacher had vaulted to the top of the standings with his fastest time, and managed one more lap by the double waved yellows had been withdrawn with just under a minute left in the session.

Ehrlacher didn’t improve, meaning he headed Urrutia by with Azcona five-tenths behind in third.

Huff ended the session fourth fastest, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s trio of Audis headed by Bennani. Magnus was sixth ahead of Berthon while Yvan Muller was the next best Lynk & Co in eighth.

Dániel Nagy was ninth in the second Zengö Motorsport Cupra, two seconds clear of Coronel who rounded out the top 10.

Girolami finished up 13th quickest, while Guerrieri’s only lap-time was a non-representative time of 9:30.987, some 36 seconds off the pace in 16th.

Second practice at the Nürburgring is scheduled to take place later on today at 19:00 CEST.