Vernay and Berthon post identical times to end day fastest

Jean-Karl Vernay and Nathanaël Berthon posted identical lap times in the afternoon test session for the FIA World Touring Car Cup at Zolder, going three tenths quicker than the pace in the morning session.

Team Mulsanne’s Vernay had been on top of the times for much of the session, posting a lap time of 1 minute 36.771 seconds after around two and a half hours to go to the top of the times to go three tenths quicker than the morning pace.

Berthon then matched Vernay’s time to the thousandth in the closing seconds, the Comtoyou Racing Audi driver thus ending up joint fastest of the day.

On a warm and sunny day in Belgium, Vernay proved that he still has the pace to challenge for wins, despite completing only a handful of laps in the Italian team’s car prior to the event.

Néstor Girolami was the leading Honda driver in third, a mere 0.037 seconds shy of the pace, in a session which saw the top 14 cars covered by less than a second.

Fourth-placed Tiago Monteiro was also within a tenth of the fastest lap, as Münnich Motorsport drivers occupied positions three to six with Attila Tassi in fifth and Esteban Guerrieri in sixth.

Guerrieri’s team had to earlier overcome an issue which prevented the Argentine completing any running in the morning’s session.

Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher was the leading Lynk & Co driver in seventh, just under two tenths off the pace, ahead of the Audi of Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel in eighth.

The top ten was completed by the Hyundai of reigning champion Norbert Michelisz and the Audi of Gilles Magnus.

The morning’s pace-setter, Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia, could only manage 15^th in his Lynk & Co, 1.165 seconds adrift of the pace.

Australian wildcard entry Dylan O’Keeffe was a respectable 17^th in the leading Vuković Motorsport Renault, 1.3 seconds from Vernay and Berthon.

Zengő Motorsport’s drivers again suffered from a lack of running in their new CUPRA Leon Competición cars, with Mikel Azcona only completing ten laps on his way to 19^th, a second and a half off.

Bence Boldizs failed to even complete a lap, adding to his lack of running in the morning.

Free practice 1 takes place at 16:00 CEST (15:00 BST) on Friday.

Afternoon session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR	39	1:36.771	0.000
2	17	Nathanaël BERTHON		Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	27	1:36.771	0.000
3	29	Néstor GIROLAMI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	33	1:36.808	0.037
4	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	42	1:36.820	0.049
5	9	Attila TASSI		ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	35	1:36.898	0.127
6	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	17	1:36.938	0.167
7	68	Yann EHRLACHER		Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	43	1:36.955	0.184
8	31	Tom CORONEL		Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	40	1:37.143	0.372
9	1	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	50	1:37.181	0.410
10	16	Gilles MAGNUS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	39	1:37.194	0.423
11	30	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	47	1:37.314	0.543
12	88	Nicky CATSBURG		Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	48	1:37.369	0.598
13	100	Yvan MULLER		Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	45	1:37.407	0.636
14	11	Thed BJÖRK		Cyan Performance	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	41	1:37.556	0.785
15	12	Santiago URRUTIA		Cyan Performance	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	33	1:37.936	1.165
16	25	Luca FILIPPI		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR	38	1:38.048	1.277
17	33	Dylan O’KEEFFE		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	33	1:38.105	1.334
18	8	Luca ENGSTLER		Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	42	1:38.139	1.368
19	96	Mikel AZCONA		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	10	1:38.278	1.507
20	7	Jack YOUNG		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	22	1:38.332	1.561
21	99	Gábor KISMARTY-LECHNER		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	6	1:44.591	7.820
22	55	Bence BOLDIZS		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	0	No time	N/A

Morning session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	12	Santiago URRUTIA		Cyan Performance	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	26	1:37.063	0.000
2	9	Attila TASSI		ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	23	1:37.205	0.142
3	31	Tom CORONEL		Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	20	1:37.247	0.184
4	100	Yvan MULLER		Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	28	1:37.291	0.228
5	29	Néstor GIROLAMI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	18	1:37.329	0.266
6	16	Gilles MAGNUS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	23	1:37.335	0.272
7	88	Nicky CATSBURG		Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	31	1:37.437	0.374
8	17	Nathanaël BERTHON		Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	24	1:37.511	0.448
9	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR	32	1:37.546	0.483
10	68	Yann EHRLACHER		Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	34	1:37.591	0.528
11	11	Thed BJÖRK		Cyan Performance	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	30	1:37.619	0.556
12	1	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	41	1:37.734	0.671
13	25	Luca FILIPPI		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR	30	1:37.868	0.805
14	7	Jack YOUNG		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	20	1:38.304	1.241
15	30	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	33	1:38.434	1.371
16	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	1:38.438	1.375
17	8	Luca ENGSTLER		Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	30	1:39.079	2.016
18	33	Dylan O’KEEFFE		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	18	1:39.454	2.391
19	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	3	No time	N/A
20	55	Bence BOLDIZS		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	0	No time	N/A
21	96	Mikel AZCONA		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	0	No time	N/A
22	99	Gábor KISMARTY-LECHNER		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	0	No time	N/A