Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher kept the Lynk & Co cars at the top of the timesheets in second practice for the FIA World Touring Car Cup on the streets of Vila Real, as only the Hyundai of Mikel Azcona prevented a top-five lockout.
Reigning champion Ehrlacher was three tenths of a second faster than Santiago Urrutia had been earlier in the day, lapping the Portuguese street circuit in 1 minute 59.300 seconds.
“It was a good practice, it’s nice to be back on these streets,” said Ehrlacher. “As you can see it’s quite demanding for the drivers because you need to be close to the walls.
“I explored a little bit the limits in FP1, but we have done a lot of work between then and now. It’s only free practice, but it’s a good start for the weekend.
“Compared to the other teams maybe we are getting into shape a bit quicker and earlier in the weekend, but for sure they will come back in qualifying.
“For sure, it is not the moment to fall asleep for us and we’ll keep working.”
Hyundai’s Azcona was second fastest, the BRC Racing man a huge 0.556 seconds slower, before a quartet of Cyan Racing cars came next, headed by FP1 pace-setter Urrutia.
Fourth-placed Ma Qing Hua was the only other driver to be within a second of the pace, the Chinese driver finishing the session in front of team-mates Yvan Muller and Thed Björk.
This time around it was Néstor Girolami who was the best Honda driver in seventh for Münnich Motorsport, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Rob Huff in eighth, the leading CUPRA driver.
The top ten was completed by Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri and Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, the latter once again being the quickest Audi driver, with the RS3 this weekend carrying the maximum amount of compensation weight.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 17:05 local time (17:05 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 68 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 1:59.300 | – |
| 2 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:59.856 | 0.556 |
| 3 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 2:00.088 | 0.788 |
| 4 | 55 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 2:00.201 | 0.901 |
| 5 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 2:00.471 | 1.171 |
| 6 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 2:00.646 | 1.346 |
| 7 | 29 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 2:00.699 | 1.399 |
| 8 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 2:00.752 | 1.452 |
| 9 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 2:00.804 | 1.504 |
| 10 | 25 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 10 | 2:01.023 | 1.723 |
| 11 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 2:01.030 | 1.730 |
| 12 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 10 | 2:01.070 | 1.770 |
| 13 | 5 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 2:01.114 | 1.814 |
| 14 | 9 | |
Attila TASSI | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 2:01.289 | 1.989 |
| 15 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 11 | 2:01.567 | 2.267 |
| 16 | 99 | |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 2:02.819 | 3.519 |
| 17 | 16 |  |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 10 | 2:03.160 | 3.860 |