Frédéric Vervisch leads Audi lockout of top four in TCR World Tour practice

Frédéric Vervisch led a Comtoyou Racing lockout of the top four places in the second free practice session for the TCR World Tour at Vallelunga.

Vervisch was the only driver to set a lap in the first five minutes of the half-hour session, with his early 1:41.403 benchmark being comfortably beaten once others took to track.

His team-mate Kobe Pauwels was fastest after 12 minutes, which point everyone had been on track, with a 1:40.866. BRC Racing pair Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz were second and third fastest, 0.256 and 0.445 seconds off the pace respectively, with Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua the only other driver within half a second of Pauwels.

At the halfway point of the session there was a surprise name in the top three as the debuting Aurélien Comte went third fastest. The SP Compétition driver is the first person to use a Cupra in the World Tour.

Pauwels was eventually moved from first place with just over ten minutes to go as team-mate Rob Huff set a 1:40.804. There was a change for fourth place as Michelisz moved ahead of his team-mate Azcona.

It became an Audi RS 3 LMS TCR II lockout of the top three with eight minutes remaining as John Filippi went fastest by 0.433s. Huff improved to close that gap, only for Filippi to immediately go faster and put 0.293s between himself and the rest of the field.

Pauwels improved in third with four minutes to go, and just after the chequered flag waved Vervisch posted a 1:40.093 to go fastest by 0.114s and to put all four of Comtoyou’s cars in the top four.

The only other drivers to improve at the end were Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia, who went ninth fastest in his Lynk & Co 03 TCR, and ALM Motorsport’s Nestor Girolami who did not put a laptime on the board until the final seven minutes and ended up in tenth place in his Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR.

Qualifying takes place later today at 14:05 local time (CEST).