BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona ended the first free practice session for the TCR World Tour / TCR South America event at El Pinar in Uruguay with the fastest time, two tenths of a second ahead of Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia.
The first practice session had originally been scheduled to take place on Friday, but due to heavy rain, it was postponed until Saturday.
On a cold and sunny morning, Azcona set the early benchmark with a time of 1 minute 20.663 seconds on the recently-modified Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini.
Home hero Urrutia was the best of the Lynk & Co drivers in second, ahead of the Honda of Néstor Girolami a further two and a half tenths back, the Argentine being run this weekend by Squadra Martino in the new-spec Civic.
Ma Qing Hua was the next-best Cyan driver in fourth, ahead of the second BRC Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz in fifth.
World tour points leader Yann Ehrlacher and team-mate Thed Björk put their Cyan Lynk & Cos in sixth and seventh respectively, the latter being just over a second off the pace.
Rob Huff was the quickest of the Comtoyou Racing Audi duo in eighth, with the honour of fastest TCR South America driver going to Squadra Martino’s Juan Manuel Casella in ninth, the Uruguayan being 1.2 seconds off the pace in his Honda.
Frédéric Vervisch completed the top ten, the Belgian 1.3 seconds off the pace.
Toyota Team Argentina’s Bernardo Llaver was 11th and second-best of the local series’ regular contingent. Llaver had earlier on Friday only just made it to the circuit in time, after the poor weather saw two of his flights from Argentina cancelled.
Raphael Reis, second in the TCR South America standings, was 12th fastest and the best CUPRA racer, whilst points leader Ignacio Montenegro was only 19th fastest, almost two and a half seconds off the pace.
The session was red-flagged three times, and not restarted after the final stoppage. W2 Pro GP’s Galid Osman (20th in the session) caused the first halt to proceedings, before Fabio Casagrande (27th in the session) and Llaver later caused the other two stoppages, all at Turn 2.
For qualifying later on Saturday, it has also been confirmed that the 30-car field is to be split into two groups, owing to the short nature of the circuit length. The top six drivers from each group will then proceed into the 12-car Q2 session to decide the top dozen of the grid for Sunday’s races.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 local time (15:30 BST, 16:30 CEST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 1:20.663 | – |
| 2 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 1:20.864 | 0.201 |
| 3 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Squadra Martino Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:21.130 | 0.467 |
| 4 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 1:21.247 | 0.584 |
| 5 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 1:21.251 | 0.588 |
| 6 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 1:21.429 | 0.766 |
| 7 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 1:21.676 | 1.013 |
| 8 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 1:21.831 | 1.168 |
| 9 | 60 | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 13 | 1:21.872 | 1.209 |
| 10 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:21.965 | 1.302 |
| 11 | 17 | |
Bernardo LLAVER | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 14 | 1:22.355 | 1.692 |
| 12 | 77 |  |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 1:22.417 | 1.754 |
| 13 | 5 | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 14 | 1:22.504 | 1.841 |
| 14 | 24 | |
Frederick BALBI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 1:22.741 | 2.078 |
| 15 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | Bratton Tito Bessone Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 9 | 1:22.780 | 2.117 |
| 16 | 36 | |
Damián FINESCHI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 15 | 1:22.834 | 2.171 |
| 17 | 2 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 13 | 1:22.862 | 2.199 |
| 18 | 8 | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 1:23.102 | 2.439 |
| 19 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 6 | 1:23.104 | 2.441 |
| 20 | 28 | |
Galid OSMAN | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 1:23.171 | 2.508 |
| 21 | 43 | |
Pedro CARDOSO | Scuderia Chiarelli | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:23.269 | 2.606 |
| 22 | 33 | |
José Manuel SAPAG | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 15 | 1:23.277 | 2.614 |
| 23 | 35 | |
Gonzalo REILLY | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 13 | 1:24.008 | 3.345 |
| 24 | 70 | |
Diego NUNES | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 13 | 1:24.193 | 3.530 |
| 25 | 1 | |
Fabricio PEZZINI | Paladini Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 1:24.562 | 3.899 |
| 26 | 13 | |
Carlos SILVA | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 13 | 1:24.734 | 4.071 |
| 27 | 34 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:25.013 | 4.350 |
| 28 | 10 | |
Adalberto BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 13 | 1:26.590 | 5.927 |
| 29 | 90 | |
Michell BONNIN | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 6 | 1:39.318 | 18.655 |
| 30 | 15 | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 2 | No time | N/A |