Yann Ehrlacher is fastest in the first Argentine Practice

The first running day for Kumho TCR World Tour and TCR South America at La Pedrera, the Autódromo J. C. Bassi in Villa Mercedes, began in the afternoon under a cloudy sky and with a strong wind.

The drivers first hit the track for a 20-minute Shakedown, before the first Free Practice session of 30 minutes that was topped by Yann Ehrlacher with a lap of 1:45.391. Actually, TCR World Tour’s points leader was the only driver to break the 1:46 wall. Second fastest was Mikel Azcona in 1:46.137, seven tenths behind, while third was placed Santiago Urrutia who posted a 1:46.463 despite carrying 40 kilos of ballast.

Behind the top three were Néstor Girolami (1:46.512), Ma Qing Hua (1:46.762), Norbert Michelisz (1:47.163), Thed Björk (1:47.256) and Rob Huff (1:47.451).

Ignacio Montenegro topped the TCR South America’s pack, in ninth overall with a lap of 1:47.692, only seven thousandths of a second faster than Bernardo Llaver who completed the top ten.

Action will resume tomorrow with the second Free Practice at 8:30 local time (13:30 CEST), that will be followed by the Qualifying at 11:00 local time (16:00 CEST) and Race 1 at 15:00 local time (20:00). Both Qualifying and Race 1 will be streamed live on tcr-series.tv and YouTube.

Picture: TCR South America/Hernán Capa