Yann Ehrlacher leads the way in opening practice sessions at Bathurst

Despite missing first practice with engine issues, Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher set the pace on the first day of practice for the TCR World Tour / TCR Australia weekend at Bathurst in Australia.

Ehrlacher had failed to complete a lap in the day’s opening session due to engine dramas, but the Frenchman went quickest of all in second practice, having never previously raced around the Mount Panorama circuit, posting a time of 2 minutes 14.670 seconds to end up a tenth and a half of a second clear of Tony D’Alberto.

However, no matter how quick Ehrlacher is on Saturday, the Frenchman is facing a five-place grid penalty for the opening race due to an engine change to resolve the earlier issue.

Reigning TCR Australia champion D’Alberto had earlier set the pace in first practice in his new Honda, and the Wall Racing driver was the only other driver in the field to post a time in the 2:14s on Friday.

His team-mate Néstor Girolami was third quickest, 0.347 seconds adrift of Ehrlacher’s pace-setting Lynk & Co, ahead of the Cyan Lynk & Co of Santiago Urrutia in fourth.

The Audi of Frédéric Vervisch in fifth and the Lynk & Co of Ma Qing Hua in sixth were the only other drivers to be within a second of the overall pace.

MPC’s Will Brown put his Audi in seventh to be the second-best of the domestic regulars, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk in eighth.

GRM’s Aaron Cameron put his Peugeot in ninth with a time which was a thousandth of a second quicker than D’Alberto’s table-topping time from FP1.

Tenth in FP2 as well as overall was TCR Australia points leader Bailey Sweeny, 1.259 seconds off the pace.

Across the two sessions there was only one red flag interruption, which came when Jordan Cox’s Peugeot stopped on track in FP1 with a driveshaft failure believed to be caused by a kerb strike.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 12:35 local time on Saturday (02:35 CET, 01:35 GMT) followed by race one at 16:15 local time (06:15 CET, 05:15 GMT).

Free practice 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	1		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:15.908	–
2	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:16.632	0.724
3	15		Michael CLEMENTE	Carl Cox Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	8	2:17.009	1.101
4	30		Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:17.065	1.157
5	130		Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	2:17.140	1.232
6	9		Will BROWN	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	2:17.143	1.235
7	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:17.250	1.342
8	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:17.541	1.633
9	18		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	2:17.653	1.745
10	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	2:17.702	1.794
11	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:17.736	1.828
12	110		Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:17.829	1.921
13	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:18.226	2.318
14	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:18.429	2.521
15	74		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	9	2:18.619	2.711
16	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	8	2:18.685	2.777
17	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:18.986	3.078
18	33		Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	3	2:19.723	3.815
19	4		Teddy CLAIRET	Hangcha Forklifts	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	2:19.744	3.836
20	14		Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	2:19.864	3.956
21	115		Tom OLIPHANT	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	2:20.060	4.152
22	22		Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	2:20.783	4.875
23	76		Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	9	2:21.327	5.419
24	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	0	No time	N/A

Free practice 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	2:14.670	–
2	1		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:14.834	0.164
3	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:15.017	0.347
4	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:15.265	0.595
5	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:15.459	0.789
6	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	2:15.461	0.791
7	9		Will BROWN	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:15.723	1.053
8	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	2:15.821	1.151
9	18		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	9	2:15.907	1.237
10	130		Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:15.929	1.259
11	30		Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	2:16.002	1.332
12	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:16.041	1.371
13	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:16.110	1.440
14	110		Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:16.452	1.782
15	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:16.471	1.801
16	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:16.752	2.082
17	14		Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	2:17.274	2.604
18	4		Teddy CLAIRET	Hangcha Forklifts	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:17.281	2.611
19	74		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	11	2:17.429	2.759
20	33		Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:17.659	2.989
21	115		Tom OLIPHANT	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	9	2:17.986	3.316
22	76		Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	10	2:18.046	3.376
23	15		Michael CLEMENTE	Carl Cox Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	2:18.595	3.925
24	22		Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	2:19.008	4.338