After a very cautious approach in yesterday’s first practice, Mike Halder, a rookie at Spa-Francorchamps, set the fastest lap in this morning’s second session that was held on a wet tarmac. The German driver and his Honda Civic completed a last lap of 2:55.481, beating Mikel Azcona’s 2:55.552 by 71 thousandths of a second. Series newcomer Nicola Baldan was placed third in his CUPRA Leon Competición, with a lap of 2:55.658 that was one tenth slower than Azcona’s in the previous model of the CUPRA TCR.
Halder said: “I’m happy, but we need a little bit more rain for Qualifying and the races! We changed the setup a little bit after yesterday and I think we went the right way; the car was fantastic and so I drove a lot of laps to learn the track as we’ve never been here before. I don’t know how quick we will be in the dry, but I think we have a good package in the wet. In dry conditions, we will probably also be better than yesterday, but the weight will have much more of an effect in the dry. The worst case for us is if it’s just damp, as we won’t know whether to go for the dry setup or the wet setup.”The track was still wet after an early morning shower when the session began, which forced all the teams to rethink on their cars’ setup.
John Filippi set the pace in the early stages, clocking a 2:56.796 that eventually would place him fifth in the timesheet. Azcona, who had missed yesterday’s session due to a steering rack issue, posted a provisional fastest lap of 1:56.562 and then improved it by one second in the following lap, that would remain the fastest time until Halder’s final attempt.
Just like in yesterday’s session, Teddy Clairet set the fourth fastest lap, though this time he was the best of the Peugeot drivers, as his brother Jimmy was eighth fastest. Andreas Bäckman (2:56.917) and Mehdi Bennani (2:56.942) ranked in sixth and seventh positions, while Azcona’s teammate at Volcano Motorsport, Evgenii Leonov clocked a good ninth fastest lap (2:57.637) ahead of Nicolas Baert, Tom Coronel and Mat’o Homola.
A few amongst the top drivers – Pepe Oriola, Daniel Lloyd, Julien Briché – focussed on the setup rather than on lap times, while Sami Toufik did not post a valid time as his car suffered from a broken engine mount that resulted in an oil leak. This will force the Comtoyou Racing’s crew to change the engine before the Qualifying that will follow at 12:10 local time (CEST), with live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.

Practice 2
2:55.481 – Mike Halder (Profi Car Team Halder, Honda Civic Type R)
2:55.552 – Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA)
2:55.658 – Nicola Baldan (Élite Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición)
2:56.160 – Teddy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308)
2:56.796 – John Filippi (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N)