Following a frustrating end to the first Free Practice session at Monza, in which Halder Motorsport had to change the engine and turbo on Jack Young’s Honda Civic Type R, Young rewarded the team for their hard work by setting the fastest time in FP2, with Tom Coronel second quickest once again. It wasn’t a complete repeat of the FP1 result, however, with the Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N of Felice Jelmini finishing the half-hour session in third place ahead of Franco Girolami.

Young’s car wasn’t the only one in need of attention after FP1, with Pepe Oriola’s Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai Elantra also requiring a new turbo. But while Oriola’s change is penalty-free, Young’s engine swap will mean he will start the weekend’s first race from the back of the grid.

The session’s first competitive lap times were set by John Filippi (1:59.532) and Josh Files (1:59.639), while on the next lap the pair both improved with a 1:59.110 for Files and a 1:58.047 for Filippi. Pepe Oriola then went P2 (1:58.938) before TCR Europe debutant Matteo Poloni went quicker than the Spaniard with a lap of 1:58.579. Michelle Halder then went P3 with a 1:58.837.

Franco Girolami briefly went P1 (1:57.715) before Filippi (1:57.663) and then Felice Jelmini (1:57.293) both went quicker. Klim Gavrilov then went P2 (1:57.654) and Jelmini improved on his next lap with a 1:57.216. At this point, the top eleven were within nine-tenths of each other, including Viktor Davidovski in P5 (1:57.725), Jáchym Galáš P6 (1:57.748) and Michele Imberti P7 (1:57.844).

Just before the halfway point of the session, the Comtoyou Racing Audi of Tom Coronel went fastest with a lap of 1:57.137 but, around three minutes later, Jack Young set the fastest times in all three sectors to record a stunning lap of 1:56.075 – over a second faster than Coronel. He then set two more sub-1:57 times on both his next two laps to demonstrate that he could repeat that fastest time with apparent ease.

With less than ten minutes remaining, Filippi went P4 (1:57.309) before Oriola (1:57.185) and then Jelmini (1:56.636) both went quicker. Files then went P6 with a lap of 1:57.337 before Filippi improved (1:57.268) and then Galáš set a 1:57.211 to go P5 behind Oriola. On his next lap, Galáš then set a 1:57.096 to briefly go P3 before Marco Butti replaced him with a 1:56.902.

Less than five minutes were left on the clock when Coronel retook P2 with a lap of 1:56.537 and Girolami (1:56.759) then went P4 behind Jelmini with around two minutes remaining. With Butti ending the session in P5, there were three Comtoyou Racing Audi cars in the top five places, but once again it was Jack Young who set the fastest time, nearly half a second clear of Tom Coronel.  

Both Free Practice sessions took place in dry conditions, but rain is forecast for both Saturday and Sunday.

Jack Young (fastest): “The guys did a brilliant job between FP1 and FP2 to get the engine changed, so a massive thanks to them; I think I owe them a beer tonight! I’m very pleased, but it’s just unfortunate about the engine change which means we’ll start last in Race 1. We’ll go into Saturday and Sunday with our heads high and see what we can do. The speed in that session has certainly given me confidence, but passing drivers in this championship is another thing; everyone here is a very good driver. We’ll try and put it all together tomorrow and fight our way through and hopefully in Race 2 we’ll be at the top end somewhere to fight for a win.”

Top positions

1.     Jack Young (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R)   1:56.075

2.     Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)   1:56.537

3.     Felice Jelmini (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)  1:56.636

4.     Franco Girolami (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)   1:56.759

5.     Marco Butti (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)   1:56.902

6.     Klim Gavrilov (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)   1:57.085

The two-stage Qualifying session is scheduled to start at 09.30 CEST tomorrow with Race 1 at 13.40. Race 2 is then at 12.25 on Sunday. Both races will be streamed live on the series’ social media pages and on the TCR Portal.