The WTCR is one of the support series of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, so its integration into the weekend forces the competition to be from Thursday to Saturday. A particular schedule that has led the pilots to have their first contact with the ‘Green Hell’ on Thursday, at noon. Yann Ehrlacher has been the fastest in the first free practice of the WTCR in the Nordschleife. The Lynk & Co driver completed the 25-kilometer lap in 8:54.143.
Forty minutes of session to give in the best of cases four laps to the ‘Green Hell’. The first free practices of the WTCR have been developed under a fairly calm script and there has only been one notable incident. After a wild skid in the section of the Grand Prix circuit that could well serve as a preview, Esteban Guerrieri lost control of his Honda Civic Type R TCR to hit the barriers on one of the fastest sections of the Nordschleife. Fortunately, the impact did not cause extensive damage to the car.
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The mishap took place nine minutes from the end of FP1, moment in which Yann Ehrlacher was already the leader of the session with the aforementioned time of 8:54.143. No one could overtake the French rider in the final stretch of training, although it is true that Santiago Urrutia jumped to second position after placing 99 thousandths of his brand partner. Mikel Azcona also had time to climb to third placealthough the Hyundai driver finished half a second behind the defending champion.
Right at the end of his flip lap, Azcona was on the finish straight with teammate Norbert Michelisz, after the 2019 WTCR champion suffered problems with the windshield frame of your Hyundai Elantra N TCR. In fact, the Hungarian was relegated to last position after completing this last lap in 10:23, being almost a minute slower than Esteban Guerrieri himselfsince the Argentine completed a lap in 9:30 before suffering his touch against the protections.
Equality has been the predominant note in FP1. In fact, all four cars competing at the Nürburgring without compensation weights have finished inside the ‘top 5’, as Rob Huff was fourth with the CUPRA and Medhi Bennani finished fifth with the Audi. Nevertheless, Honda riders -40 kilos of ballast- seem to suffer and the four representatives of the Japanese firm have finished in the final positions, more than 8.5 seconds behind the head.
Photos: FIA WTCR