WTCR Macau: Rob Huff smashes TCR lap record to top practice
Rob Huff set a new TCR lap record of the Guia circuit to top World Touring Car Cup practice for this weekend's season finale in Macau
Huff, a nine-time winner of the Guia race, set a best time of 2m29.766s in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI in FP2 to head Thursday's second half-hour practice session by 0.533 seconds from Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic driver Yann Ehrlacher.
That benchmark time was more than 1.7s faster than the previous best TCR lap in Macau, which was also set by Huff when he contested the TCR International Series finale in 2015, although it had already been beaten in FP1 by WRT Audi driver Jean-Karl Vernay.
Vernay's fastest time in the first session, a 2m31.328s, had given him top spot by 0.575s from Esteban Guerrieri (Munnich Motorsport Honda), while Huff was third.
Title contender Yvan Muller, who is second overall but 39 points behind leader Gabriele Tarquini, ended FP2 in third in his YMR Hyundai i30 N ahead of Vernay's RS3 LMS and the second Golf of Mehdi Bennani.
Guerrieri ended FP2 sixth, 0.805s off the pace after improving on his final lap, ahead of 2017 World Touring Car champion Thed Bjork - who is also part of a group of seven drivers still in contention to claim the inaugural WTCR title.
BRC Racing Hyundai pair Norbert Michelisz and Tarquini were eighth and ninth, while Ma Qing Hua - making his third appearance of the season in place of Tiago Monteiro at Honda outfit Boutsen Ginion - rounded out the top 10.
Kevin Ceccon was the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo operation's lead representative in FP2 in 12th, ahead of the highest-placed non-Hyundai driver in the points standings, Pepe Oriola (Campos Racing Cupra).
Andre Couto, the 2000 Macau Grand Prix winner, was the fastest of the six wildcard entrants contesting the event in FP2, lapping his MacPro Racing Honda Civic 6.264s slower than Huff's benchmark.
Kevin Tse Wing Kin (Audi RS3 LMS) had been fastest of the six additional entrants in first practice.
Practice one result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jean-Karl Vernay | WRT | Audi | 2m31.328s | 11 |
2 | Esteban Guerrieri | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 0.575s | 10 |
3 | Rob Huff | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 0.969s | 10 |
4 | Yvan Muller | YMR | Hyundai | 1.185s | 10 |
5 | Norbert Michelisz | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 1.430s | 10 |
6 | Yann Ehrlacher | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 1.472s | 11 |
7 | Thed Bjork | YMR | Hyundai | 1.739s | 11 |
8 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 2.012s | 10 |
9 | Pepe Oriola | Campos Racing | Cupra | 2.053s | 8 |
10 | Aurelien Panis | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2.770s | 10 |
11 | Timo Scheider | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 2.931s | 11 |
12 | Gabriele Tarquini | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 2.965s | 10 |
13 | Nathanael Berthon | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 3.028s | 11 |
14 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Cupra | 3.202s | 8 |
15 | Mat'o Homola | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 3.234s | 10 |
16 | Gordon Shedden | WRT | Audi | 3.399s | 10 |
17 | Luigi Ferrara | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 3.886s | 10 |
18 | Frederic Vervisch | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 4.082s | 10 |
19 | Kevin Ceccon | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 4.278s | 10 |
20 | Aurelien Comte | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 4.553s | 11 |
21 | Ma Qinghua | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 4.588s | 10 |
22 | Denis Dupont | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 4.616s | 11 |
23 | Kevin Tse | Team Work Motorsport | Audi | 5.491s | 11 |
24 | Tom Coronel | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 5.894s | 10 |
25 | Filipe Souza | Champ Motorsport | Audi | 6.124s | 6 |
26 | Andre Couto | MacPro Racing Team | Honda | 6.399s | 10 |
27 | Billy Lo | Tian Shi Zuver Team | Audi | 6.952s | 9 |
28 | Rui Valente | PCT Racing Team | Volkswagen | 11.630s | 10 |
29 | Kam San Lam | Champ Motorsport | Audi | 14.254s | 8 |
30 | Zsolt Szabo | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | - | 2 |
31 | Norbert Nagy | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | - | 0 |
Practice two result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rob Huff | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 2m29.766s | 10 |
2 | Yann Ehrlacher | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 0.533s | 10 |
3 | Yvan Muller | YMR | Hyundai | 0.682s | 9 |
4 | Jean-Karl Vernay | WRT | Audi | 0.684s | 9 |
5 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 0.774s | 11 |
6 | Esteban Guerrieri | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 0.805s | 10 |
7 | Thed Bjork | YMR | Hyundai | 1.119s | 9 |
8 | Norbert Michelisz | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 1.247s | 9 |
9 | Gabriele Tarquini | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 1.828s | 9 |
10 | Ma Qinghua | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 1.974s | 10 |
11 | Timo Scheider | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 2.058s | 10 |
12 | Kevin Ceccon | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 2.241s | 11 |
13 | Pepe Oriola | Campos Racing | Cupra | 2.318s | 5 |
14 | Nathanael Berthon | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2.468s | 10 |
15 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Cupra | 2.668s | 9 |
16 | Frederic Vervisch | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2.785s | 9 |
17 | Luigi Ferrara | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 3.071s | 8 |
18 | Aurelien Panis | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 3.274s | 9 |
19 | Aurelien Comte | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 3.468s | 11 |
20 | Mat'o Homola | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 3.539s | 8 |
21 | Gordon Shedden | WRT | Audi | 3.554s | 11 |
22 | Tom Coronel | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 4.009s | 10 |
23 | Denis Dupont | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 5.098s | 4 |
24 | Andre Couto | MacPro Racing Team | Honda | 6.264s | 10 |
25 | Filipe Souza | Champ Motorsport | Audi | 6.886s | 9 |
26 | Billy Lo | Tian Shi Zuver Team | Audi | 7.779s | 10 |
27 | Kevin Tse | Team Work Motorsport | Audi | 8.622s | 10 |
28 | Norbert Nagy | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | 8.691s | 7 |
29 | Rui Valente | PCT Racing Team | Volkswagen | 11.394s | 11 |
30 | Zsolt Szabo | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | 11.516s | 5 |
31 | Kam San Lam | Champ Motorsport | Audi | 13.314s | 9 |
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