Photo: WTCR

Thed Björk tops opening WTCR practice at Hungaroring

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Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk emerged as the quickest driver in the opening World Touring Car Cup practice session of the weekend at the Hungaroring.

The Lynk & Co driver posted a best time of 1:51.965 to end the 45-minute session just one-hundredth of a second faster than the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Nathanaël Berthon.

With the news that the teams would be receiving four additional slick tyres from Goodyear in the wake of the Nürburgring weekend which forced the cancellation of both races, the session was the first competitive running on the new batch of tyres.

The session ran without problems throughout as BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona led the early running on a 1:52.495, just over five-hundredths quicker than Björk.

Björk wasted little time before hitting the front, with his second effort good enough to top the session as most drivers appeared to focus on race runs thereafter.

As expected, Audi looked strong in the session with Gilles Magnus finishing third fastest, just behind team-mate Berton. The aerodynamic nature of the RS 3 LMS TCR has long been suited to the Hungaroring track, with Magnus taking victory in race one last year.

The Belgian was a regular inside the top 10 throughout and his final effort of 1:52.135 was just under two-tenths shy of Björk’s benchmark time.

Esteban Guerrieri was the best of the Hondas in fifth, three-tenths off the fastest time, with Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz in close company insixth.

Björk’s Cyan Racing team-mates Yann Ehrlacher and Yvan Muller came next, with Guerrieri’s Münnich Motorsport team-mate Néstor Girolami ninth quickest, just four-hundredths ahead of Ma Qing Hua.

Zengö Motorsport, competing on home soil this weekend, had an up-and-down session – at least on the timesheets – as Rob Huff ended the session 11th, describing himself as “quite happy” having set his best time at the start of the session on used tyres.

Team-mate Dáni Nagy was 16th, having also run on used tyres, but admitted that he would be seeking “better one-lap pace in FP2.”

Second practice at the Hungaroring is scheduled to take place at 13:05 CEST.