Tom Coronel tops the times in drying second practice in Pau

Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel ended Friday with the fastest TCR Europe practice lap time of all on the streets of Pau, with the Comtoyou Racing driver benefitting from a drying track.

After rain affected first practice, where his team-mate Kobe Pauwels had been quickest, the circuit was much drier in Free Practice 2, who like FP1 had been delayed by over two hours.

Although the early lap times were set on a still damp circuit, by the end of the half-hour session the sun broke through, quickly drying the asphalt.

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As a result, the Dutchman posted the fastest lap of the day with just over two minutes to go, lapping in 1 minute 23.259 seconds to edge out MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson by over half a second.

Andersson and Coronel had been swapping times on a regular basis prior to that point, although the young Swede was eventually 0.595 seconds adrift in his Lynk & Co 03 TCR.

“The team told me that I was in a good swing; I believe all the time we were towards the top of the list and a few times Andersson was also there,” said Coronel.

“In the end, I just put some fresh tyres on the front and the time was there. It was good grip, good balance with the car and very good traction, which is not normal for my car so I was surprised but very happy with that.

“Of course, I know this track very well – I think I’ve been here more than any other TCR driver since I was here for the WTCC and WTCR and now TCR Europe.

“I think it’s also a big advantage that I like street circuits, especially like this in mixed conditions. But you know that this is the kind of track where if you make one mistake you have a handicap for the rest of your weekend, so the speed is there and the focus now is not to make any mistakes.”

Pauwels was third fastest, having also briefly spent some time at the top of the timesheets, albeit almost a second and a half off Coronel’s pace in his Audi.

Dušan Borković was the best of the Hyundai Elantra drivers in fourth, ahead of local racer Eric Cayrolle’s Audi in fifth.

Isaac smith was Volcano Motorsport’s fastest driver in sixth, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s John Filippi in seventh and his team-mate Viktor Davidovski in eighth.

Only 11 drivers took part in the session – local entrant Christian Philippon failed to post a time.

Prior to the session, the Stewards announced that the Volkswagen Golf GTi of Michel Leal did not conform to the technical regulations, eliminating the Frenchman from the rest of the event.

They also have allowed Julien Nougaret and Dorian Duthil to share the CUPRA TCR they have entered, as they share the car in the local French championship.

As such, Nougaret will compete in race one, whilst Duthil will compete in race two. The decision means neither driver will score points in the series this weekend.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 11:29 CEST on Saturday (10:29 BST) followed by race one at 18:10 CEST (17:10 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:23.259	–
2	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	14	1:23.854	0.595
3	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	16	1:24.727	1.468
4	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	15	1:24.870	1.611
5	64		Eric CAYROLLE	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	1:25.271	2.012
6	23		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	16	1:25.440	2.181
7	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	15	1:25.572	2.313
8	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:26.380	3.121
9	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	15	1:26.601	3.342
10	41		Dorian DUTHIL	Cap Racing by CDRS	CUPRA TCR	16	1:31.104	7.845
11	66		Olivier LÓPEZ	Team CDRS	CUPRA TCR	12	1:38.536	15.277
12	17		Christian PHILIPPON	Espace Racing with CDRS	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	No time	N/A
13	8		Nicola BALDAN	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A
14	49		Michel LEAL	Team Leal Compétition	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	0	No time	N/A