Thed Björk continues to lead the way in Vila Real practice

YMR’s Thed Björk continued to set the pace in second practice for the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) on the streets of Vila Real, as Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Rob Huff emerged as his closest challenger in second.

Björk went almost a second faster than he had earlier in first practice as the circuit continued to improve in pace, allowing the Swede to keep Hyundai on top of the times.

Huff improved substantially on his lap earlier in the morning, going 1.8 seconds quicker to emerge in second, less than a tenth behind the pace-setting i30 N of Björk.

BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz also made further gains to go third, whilst the second YMR Hyundai of Yvan Muller was not on the pace as much in second practice, the Frenchman down in 14^th position, 1.869 seconds slower than Björk.

Pepe Oriola was the leading CUPRA driver in fourth on what is the Spaniard’s first visit to the Portuguese street circuit, ahead of the leading Audi of Leopard Lukoil’s Jean-Karl Vernay in fifth.

Esteban Guerrieri was the quickest Honda driver in sixth, putting his Münnich Motorsport car just over a second off the pace.

The second SLR Volkswagen of Mehdi Bennani was seventh, ahead of BRC Racing’s Gabriele Tarquini – who had been second in FP1 – in eighth.

For the second session in a row Gianni Morbidelli was comfortably the fastest of the Alfa Romeo drivers, ending the session in 12^th whilst Team Mulsanne team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi could only manage 24^th.

Unlike the morning’s earlier session there was no red flag delay this time in the half-hour session as all drivers managed to avoid any major incidents.

Qualifying takes place at 12:30 BST (13:30 CEST), followed by race one at 16:00 BST (17:00 CEST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	11	Thed BJÖRK		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	2:01.107	0.000
2	12	Rob HUFF		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	12	2:01.149	0.042
3	5	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	2:01.336	0.229
4	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	2:01.776	0.669
5	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	9	2:02.117	1.010
6	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:02.125	1.018
7	25	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	2:02.200	1.093
8	30	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:02.365	1.258
9	27	John FILIPPI		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	10	2:02.492	1.385
10	68	Yann EHRLACHER		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:02.658	1.551
11	21	Aurélien PANIS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	12	2:02.662	1.555
12	10	Gianni MORBIDELLI		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	11	2:02.735	1.628
13	52	Gordon SHEDDEN		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	9	2:02.939	1.832
14	48	Yvan MULLER		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	2:02.976	1.869
15	7	Aurélien COMTE		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	2:03.045	1.938
16	15	James THOMPSON		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	12	2:03.118	2.011
17	66	Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	10	2:03.161	2.054
18	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:03.236	2.129
19	8	Norbert NAGY		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	12	2:03.346	2.239
20	9	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	12	2:03.393	2.286
21	63	Benjamin LESSENNES		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:03.804	2.697
22	22	Frédéric VERVISCH		Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS	13	2:04.086	2.979
23	13	Edgar FLORINDO		Veloso Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	12	2:04.090	2.983
24	88	Fabrizio GIOVANARDI		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	11	2:04.118	3.011
25	26	José RODRIGUES		Target Competition	Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR	12	2:04.466	3.359
26	23	Nathanaël BERTHON		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	9	2:05.226	4.119
27	20	Denis DUPONT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:05.632	4.525