In the second FIA World Touring Cup practice session of the day, it was Norbert Michelisz who emerged as the quickest around Adria Raceway. With three drivers and three different marques separated by less than a tenth of a second in practice two, qualifying is shaping up to be a hotly-contested affair.
Yann Ehrlacher was the quickest out of the blocks for Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, straight away breaking into the 1 minute 50 seconds threshold. However, FP1 pacesetter Gilles Magnus soon went quicker with a lap time of 01:50.834.
Michelisz then shaved nearly a tenth of a second off Magnus’ benchmark to go to the top of the timesheets, while Santiago Urrutia and Nathanael Berthon jumped up into fourth and fifth place respectively.
Not content with that, Urrutia followed this up with an even quicker tour of the circuit, which proved fast enough to elevate him above Michelisz in the rankings.
Over the next couple of laps, the pace really began to get turned up a notch. Ehrlacher banked a lap time of 01:50.395, while Attila Tassi then moved up into second place with an effort that was three tenths of a second slower. That margin was almost instantly filled by a trio of drivers, as Thed Bjork, Yvan Muller and Berthon knocked Tassi back down to fifth.
Magnus soon retaliated too, but couldn’t quite match the pace of Ehrlacher. As a result, the Belgian then also fell vulnerable to Jean-Karl Vernay who slotted into second place. This was crucial for Vernay who had struggled a little bit for pace in the morning’s earlier practice session. Now though, he was right on the coattails of title rival Ehrlacher.
A similar sentiment could also be attributed to Audi’s Frederic Vervisch. Another of Ehrlacher’s title rivals who had flown under the radar in practice one, Vervisch then pipped Vernay to close in on the pace of Ehrlacher too.
However, everybody was then blown out of the water by Urrutia, who set the fastest time of the day at this point; a lap time of 01:49.830. Bjork then followed this up, going just a tenth of a second slower than his team-mate.
With just a couple of minutes left of the session, Gabriele Tarquini span off in sector two; the great veteran not quite managing to match his form from the first practice session. The same couldn’t be said for the Italian’s team-mate Michelisz however, as he shot back up to the top of the timesheets with a new benchmark of 01:49.775.
As the chequered flag was waved on the session, Michelisz would remain fastest of all, around six hundredths of a second quicker than Urrutia. Magnus rounded out the top three a further two hundredths of a second further back.
Vernay ended up as the best-placed of the key title contenders in fourth, just ahead of Bjork in fifth and championship points leader Ehrlacher in sixth.
Tarquini improved up into seventh towards the latter stages of the session, while Vervisch fell back to eighth. Tassi and Berthon completed the top ten.
As has often been the case this season, there appeared to be plenty of work to do for CUPRA and the Zengo Motorsport team. Rob Huff was the best-placed of their drivers, all the way down in sixteenth.
Qualifying gets underway later this afternoon at 15:30 local time (14:30 GMT).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:49.775 | – |
| 2 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 1:49.830 | 0.055 |
| 3 | 16 |  |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 13 | 1:49.852 | 0.077 |
| 4 | 69 |  |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:49.955 | 0.180 |
| 5 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 1:49.986 | 0.211 |
| 6 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 1:50.031 | 0.256 |
| 7 | 3 |  |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:50.070 | 0.295 |
| 8 | 22 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 13 | 1:50.350 | 0.575 |
| 9 | 9 | |
Attila TASSI | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 13 | 1:50.352 | 0.577 |
| 10 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 1:50.354 | 0.579 |
| 11 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 13 | 1:50.457 | 0.682 |
| 12 | 29 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 12 | 1:50.855 | 1.080 |
| 13 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 1:51.081 | 1.306 |
| 14 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 1:51.227 | 1.452 |
| 15 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 1:51.240 | 1.465 |
| 16 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 1:51.424 | 1.649 |
| 17 | 55 | |
Bence BOLDIZS | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 1:51.759 | 1.984 |
| 18 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:51.787 | 2.012 |
| 19 | 82 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:51.847 | 2.072 |
| 20 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 1:51.853 | 2.078 |
| 21 | 28 | |
Jordi GENÉ | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 1:51.961 | 2.186 |