Attila Tassi tops second Nürburgring WTCR practice

Team Engstler’s Attila Tassi took Honda to the top of the times in the second practice session at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The Hungarian, at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type-R posted a best time of 8:52.201, ending up just under six-tenths clear of Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani.

FP1 pacesetter and double world champion Yann Ehrlacher was third quickest and the best of the Cyan Racing Lynk & Cos.

Tyre issues again played a part in the session, with Ehrlacher’s team-mate Yvan Muller suffering a delamination around the Nordschleife while Gilles Magnus got a puncture while negotiating the Grand Prix layout in his Comtoyou Audi RS 3 LMS TCR.

After a crash in the opening session earlier on Friday, Esteban Guerrieri had a trouble-free evening in his Münnich Motorsport Honda, despite a near-miss at the penultimate corner when he caught a snap of oversteer on his first flying lap.

That effort was a 8:58.366, which briefly put him quickest of all, but Ehrlacher beat that time to go fastest ahead of Bennani’s Audi.

Ehrlacher improved in the second half of the session as BRC Squadra Corse’s Norbert Michelisz went second fastest ahead of Hyundai team-mate Mikel Azcona.

Tassi then produced his quickest time of the session to beat Ehrlacher by over a second, with Bennani improving on his final attempt to finish up in second.

Azcona was fourth at the flag, ahead of Michelisz and Tom Coronel, with just over six-tenths of a second splitting the trio.

Behind, Guerrieri was a strong seventh ahead of Thed Björk and Nathanaël Berthon, who made sure Comtoyou Racing enjoyed another promising practice session.

Despite his tyre trouble, Muller’s time was good enough for 10th fastest.

Two drivers failed to set a truly representative lap-time. Santiago Urrutia encountered tyre issues in his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, as did Néstor Girolami in the second Münnich Motorsport Civic.

Next up is qualifying, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 13:00 CEST.