The second free practice of the WTCR in the Nordschleife variant of the Nürburgring has ended with Attila Tassi in the lead. The Hungarian rider from Team Engstler made the most of the last minutes of FP2 to set a time of 8:52.201, record with which he has beaten Mehdi Bennani by more than half a second. Although there has been no notable incident during training, at least in the form of an accident, drivers like Yvan Muller, Norbert Michelisz, Gilles Magnus or Néstor Girolami have had different problems with their cars during this FP2.
Hardly had the first WTCR cars hit the track when it became clear that the session was going to be marked by the action of the ‘Gremlins’. Few seconds after booting your installation lap, Yvan Muller began to hear a strange noise that came from the bad anchoring of the front splitter of his Lynk & Co 03 TCR. Hyundai mechanics also had to work hard to solve a problem in Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai. With everything, the palm was taken by the Belgian Gilles Magnus.
The Comtoyou Racing driver appeared in the pits with significant damage to the front of his Audi RS 3 LMS TCR, but also in the left front wheel arch. In addition, the car had red scratches all over the side. Although everything pointed to a touch against the barriers, Magnus also came to the pits with a puncture. After this incident, Néstor Girolami also had a problem with his Honda that made him ride very slowly on the trackwhich in the end did finish last to the current leader of the WTCR.
Among those who did have a more or less calm FP2, Attila Tassi managed to uncover the jar of essences on his last lap to sign a time of 8:52.201, a very commendable record if one takes into account that the Honda Civic Type R are weighed down with 40 kilograms. Despite this inconvenience, the Hungarian was 547 thousandths higher than the Moroccan Mehdi Bennani. For its part, champion Yann Ehrlacher finished 1.1 seconds behindalthough it is true that the Frenchman was the rival to beat for much of the session.
Mikel Azcona rushed the last moments of the session to climb to fourth place, although the sensations of the Navarrese do not seem entirely positive due to the deficit in acceleration and/or top speed of the Hyundai Elantra. With everything, the Navarrese finished just ahead of his teammate Norbert Michelisz and Tom Coronel. The Dutchman completed his best lap in an attempt in which he went wide and stepped on the grass, so the Comtoyou rider has some room for improvement.
Photos: FIA WTCR