Kobe Pauwels on top in second Spa practice

Kobe Pauwels set the fastest time in the second TCR Europe / TCR World Tour practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, even though the Comtoyou Racing driver had failed to post a competitive time in the earlier session.

BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona was the first driver to lead the times, the reigning WTCR champion posting a lap of 2 minutes 32.926 seconds five minutes in, albeit some way off the earlier best as the drivers took time to build speed in the session.

Over five minutes later, RC2 Racing’s Felipe Fernández Gil put his Audi at the top, eight tenths quicker than Azcona, but it would not last for long before Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk, who was earlier sixth in FP1, went quickest with a 2:31.207 two minutes later.

Just 30 seconds later, Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel took over at the top with an effort of 2:30.930, with the Dutchman’s time standing until two and a half minutes from the end.

Pauwels then went just over a tenth quicker with his time of 2:30.800 to end the day with the top FP2 time, although the lap was still just under eight tenths slower than the best effort from first practice.

Coronel held on to second, 0.130 seconds behind, with Target Competition’s Dušan Borković improving on his FP1 ranking to end up third as the leading Hyundai driver.

First practice pace-setter Néstor Girolami was fourth in his ALM Motorsport Honda, ahead of Comtoyou’s John Filippi in fifth.

Another Audi followed in sixth, with Frédéric Vervisch three tenths adrift, ahead of Björk in seventh, the Swede unable to improve his time in the final two thirds of the session.

Yann Ehrlacher put his Lynk & Co directly behind Björk in eighth, with the top ten being completed by BRC’s Norbert Michelisz and Comtoyou’s Viktor Davidovski.

Qualifying takes place at 10:40 CEST (09:40 BST) on Saturday, followed by race one at 15:30 CEST (14:30 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:30.800	–
2	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:30.930	0.130
3	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:30.949	0.149
4	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:30.981	0.181
5	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:31.011	0.211
6	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:31.116	0.316
7	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	2:31.207	0.407
8	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	2:31.319	0.519
9	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:31.458	0.658
10	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:31.468	0.668
11	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	2:31.532	0.732
12	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:31.681	0.881
13	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	2:31.839	1.039
14	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:31.900	1.100
15	19		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:32.127	1.327
16	12		Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	8	2:32.161	1.361
17	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	8	2:32.244	1.444
18	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:32.477	1.677
19	23		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:33.163	2.363
20	264		Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:33.642	2.842
21	48		Mikael KARLSSON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:33.721	2.921
22	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:33.976	3.176
23	128		Philipp LINDBERG	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:36.982	6.182