Rookie touring car racer Kobe Pauwels stole the limelight in the second TCR Europe / TCR World Tour practice session at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal, edging out Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher by less than a tenth of a second.
It marked the fourth consecutive timed session which has seen a Comtoyou Racing Audi on top of the times, with the top spot this time going to the young Belgian.
Indeed, both of Pauwels top times would have been good enough for pole, as his second-best lap, a 1 minute 52.197 seconds, was still faster than Ehrlacher’s effort of 1:52.210.
“I’m feeling good after FP2, of course, as this is my first year in circuit racing and first year in a TCR car,” said Pauwels.
“With such a competitive field in TCR Europe and the KUMHO World Tour it’s already a special feeling and then to top a session in front of all those iconic names in motorsport is quite incredible.
“We had some issues in FP1 which the team obviously solved perfectly and you can see from the result in FP2 that the team is really one big group all striving to work in the right direction and I’m really happy to be part of this amazing journey.
“Tomorrow we will see where we really are pace-wise, depending on whether everybody has already shown their full potential or not. I think we have a little bit more left, but not much!”
Second for Ehrlacher was a marked improvement over his earlier pace, which had seen the Frenchman just 11th in the opening session, over a second off the pace.
Néstor Girolami put his new ALM Motorsport Honda in third, just under three tenths off the pace, with a lap at the very end of the session, ahead of the Comtoyou Audi of John Filippi in fourth.
Rob Huff, fastest in Thursday testing, was fifth in his Comtoyou Audi, ahead of a marked improvement from Ma Qing Hua in sixth – the Chinese racer had failed to post a time in his Lynk & Co in the first session.
Tom Coronel put his Comtoyou Audi in seventh, ahead of first practice pace-setter Frédéric Vervisch in eighth.
The top ten was completed by the leading Hyundai of Mikel Azcona in ninth and Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk in tenth.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 09:50 WEST / BST on Saturday morning, followed by race one at 14:20 WEST / BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 22 |  |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:52.149 | – |
| 2 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:52.210 | 0.061 |
| 3 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:52.444 | 0.295 |
| 4 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:52.515 | 0.366 |
| 5 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:52.550 | 0.401 |
| 6 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 1:52.683 | 0.534 |
| 7 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:52.685 | 0.536 |
| 8 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:52.744 | 0.595 |
| 9 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 1:52.746 | 0.597 |
| 10 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 1:52.759 | 0.610 |
| 11 | 11 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:52.834 | 0.685 |
| 12 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 1:52.908 | 0.759 |
| 13 | 39 | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:53.018 | 0.869 |
| 14 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 1:53.204 | 1.055 |
| 15 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:53.204 | 1.055 |
| 16 | 23 | |
Isaac SMITH | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:53.292 | 1.143 |
| 17 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 1:53.457 | 1.308 |
| 18 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:53.537 | 1.388 |
| 19 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:53.565 | 1.416 |
| 20 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:53.902 | 1.753 |
| 21 | 48 | |
Mikael KARLSSON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:54.347 | 2.198 |
| 22 | 71 |  |
Ben BARGWANNA | Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 14 | 1:54.416 | 2.267 |