After Tom Coronel set the fastest time in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR  in this morning’s first Free Practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, it was the turn of the Halder Motorsport Honda Civic Type R of Jack Young to top the timesheet in FP2. It was once again the Volcano Motorsport CUPRA of Isidro Callejas in P2 with the current Drivers’ championship leader Franco Girolami setting the third fastest time in his Audi.

Young was clearly aiming to lay down a marker early in the thirty-minute session as he went fastest in all three sectors to set a benchmark time (2:31.872) on his first flying lap. On the next lap, the Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team CUPRA of John Filippi went second fastest with a time of 2:32.742 and Pepe Oriola was P3 in his Brutal Fish Racing Honda Civic Type R (2:33.358).

Girolami then went quickest with a lap of 2:31.087, which kept him at the top of the standings for two more laps until Young pipped him on his fourth quick lap with a time of 2:30.778. Behind them, the pack included 2019 TCR Europe Champion Josh Files (2:31.619), his teammate Nicola Baldan (2:31.772) and Mat’o Homola in the HYUNDAI | Janík Motorsport Hyundai Elantra N (2:33.078). Shortly after setting that time, however, Homola was forced to return slowly to the pits, possibly caused by a puncture.

On the lap following Young’s return to P1, Tom Coronel went third-fastest with a 2:31.261, with his teammate Viktor Davidovski then going P6 with a 2:31.993. On the next lap, Oriola regained P5 (2:31.692) before Klim Gavrilov went quicker (2:31.338) in a Volcano Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición. On the same lap, Young consolidated his position at the top of the leaderboard with another sub-2’31” lap (2:30.263) and that wouldn’t be beaten. With less than three minutes of the session, remaining, however, Callejas edged out Girolami for P2 with a 2:31.049. As the session ended, there were yellow flags being waved in Sector 2 and so any hope of improvements on the very last lap were dashed.

Twenty-two cars took part in the session, with Marco Butti able to get in some decent laps in the Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou Racing Audi after his driveshaft failure in Free Practice 1. All three of the RC2 Junior Team cars took to the track after Rubén Fernández missed FP1 due to his late arrival at the circuit this morning but another driver planning to make his debut in the series this weekend, Caren Burton, was missing from the line-up after being forced to withdraw from the event for technical reasons involving his Peugeot 308.

Jack Young (fastest): “In FP1, we were just getting our eye in and getting used to the car together with checking out the changes that have been made to the circuit. I think we really brought out our pace in FP2, but I don’t really think everyone else did. It may be a different story tomorrow but for today we’re very happy with the car and the team is working well for us. Qualifying is a different day tomorrow and everyone will be bringing out their best cards so we’ll have to see…”

Top positions

1.     Jack Young (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R)   2:30.263

2.     Isidro Callejas (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)   2:31.049

3.     Franco Girolami (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)   2:31.087

4.     Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)   2:31.261

5.     Klim Gavrilov (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)   2:31.338

6.     Josh Files (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)   2:31.619

Qualifying is scheduled to start at 10.40CEST tomorrow with Race 1 at 15.00 and then Race 2 is scheduled for 11.35 on Sunday. Both races will be streamed live on the series’ social media pages and on the TCR Portal.