Pauwels surprises to top TCR World Tour practice two at Algarve
Comtoyou Racing’s rookie Kobe Pauwels was the surprise name at the top of the times in practice two for the inaugural TCR World Tour event at Algarve.
His team-mate Rob Huff set the pace early on, and this time the majority of drivers headed out to set flying laps straight away while many had only completed outlaps at first in practice one.
Huff improved to 1:52.550 on his second flying lap to stay in first place, then failed to better that benchmark. The only driver to beat him at first though was Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher, who went fastest by 0.340 seconds just eight minutes into the session before also hitting his peak on pace and not finding any further improvements in laptime.
The order behind them changed frequently for a few minutes, then track activity calmed down as many headed to the pits.
At the halfway mark of the half-hour session it was BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona in third, and two minutes later he was bettered by Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua. The Chinese driver had missed practice one due to a licence issue, but that was resolved in time for him to take to the track in the afternoon.
His team-mate Thed Bjork very briefly moved ahead of him on the timesheet before his fastest lap was deleted for a track limits violation at turn four. It was a mistake he made several times, eventually leading to him being handed a stop-go penalty. After practice one, in which Dušan Borković committed six track limits offences, race control clarified their stance on repeat offenders and said a stop-go would be issued to anyone who committed five offences in practice two or qualifying.
With ten minutes to go of practice there was a new name at the top as touring car racing newcomer Pauwels set a 1:52.197 in his Comtoyou-run Audi RS 3 LMS II TCR.
He improved to 1:52.149 on his next lap, putting him 0.061s ahead of Ehrlacher, which was enough to keep him on top until the chequered flag waved.
ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami made it three different manufacturers in the top three by going third fastest in his new Honda Civic Type R (FL5) with less than a minute to go of the session.
He knocked from third Comtoyou’s John Filippi, who was another late improver, meaning Huff was shuffled down to fifth and Hua down to sixth. Jumping up from the back of the order to seventh at the end was Tom Coronel, with the Comtoyou driver now eligible for Diamond Trophy honours.
Practice one pacesetter Frédéric Vervisch was marginally slower in eighth place, and just 0.002s ahead of Azcona. Bjork rounded out the top ten, with three more cars within a second of Pauwels’ pace.
In addition to Bjork, RC2 Racing Team’s Ruben Fernández also got a stop-go penalty for track limits abuse.
