Spanish racer Mikel Azcona headed a 25-car field in first practice for the TCR Europe season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard, putting his CUPRA four tenths faster than Target Competition Hyundai driver Reece Barr.
Azonca hit the top of the times after just over 20 minutes, with a time of 2 minutes 14.116 seconds around the full Le Castellet circuit.
Irishman Barr was second, despite the Hyundais, along with the Hondas, having immediately been impacted by a change in the BoP forcing them to run with 10 mm higher ride height than the competition.
Hungarian driver Dániel Nagy was third quickest in his M1RA Hyundai, ahead of the second Target Competition i30 of Dušan Borković in fourth, with the Serbian racer being the last driver to be within a second of the pace.
The leading Honda was KCMG’s Josh Files in fifth, ahead of Macedonian racer Igor Stefanovski in sixth.
Reigning TCR International Series champion Jean-Karl Vernay was seventh, with the Frenchman only having been revealed as a late entry into the series on Wednesday.
The second KCMG Honda of Attila Tassi was eighth, whilst PCR Sport’s Danny Kroes and Jens Reno Møller completed the top ten in their CUPRA and Honda respectively. The latter stopped on track in the session and had to be recovered to the pits at the end.
Julien Briché did not take part in the session as he has not yet taken delivery of his new Peugeot 308 TCR.
Second practice gets underway at 17:54 CEST (16:54 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 2:14.116 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 8 | Reece BARR |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 2:14.565 | 0.449 |
| 3 | 9 | Dániel NAGY |  |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 2:14.670 | 0.554 |
| 4 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:15.111 | 0.995 |
| 5 | 99 | Josh FILES |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 10 | 2:15.119 | 1.003 |
| 6 | 7 | Igor STEFANOVSKI |  |
Stefanovski Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:15.173 | 1.057 |
| 7 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:15.267 | 1.151 |
| 8 | 90 | Attila TASSI | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 11 | 2:15.492 | 1.376 |
| 9 | 38 | Danny KROES |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 2:15.659 | 1.543 |
| 10 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 9 | 2:15.667 | 1.551 |
| 11 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:15.872 | 1.756 |
| 12 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:16.098 | 1.982 |
| 13 | 26 | Francisco MORA |  |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 2:16.277 | 2.161 |
| 14 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 2:16.501 | 2.385 |
| 15 | 16 | Nicola BALDAN |  |
Pit Lane Competizioni | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:16.725 | 2.609 |
| 16 | 14 | Loris CENCETTI |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:17.176 | 3.060 |
| 17 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 11 | 2:17.407 | 3.291 |
| 18 | 13 | Cedric PIRO |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 10 | 2:17.459 | 3.343 |
| 19 | 71 | Enrico BETTERA | |
Pit Lane Competizioni | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 2:17.592 | 3.476 |
| 20 | 63 | Giovanni ALTOÈ | |
Pit Lane Competizioni | Audi RS3 LMS TCR DSG | 12 | 2:17.736 | 3.620 |
| 21 | 23 | Francisco ABREU | |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 2:18.085 | 3.969 |
| 22 | 66 | Andrea LARINI | |
Pit Lane Competizioni | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 2:18.663 | 4.547 |
| 23 | 42 | Stefano COMINI | |
Race Republic | Subaru WRX STi TCR | 8 | 2:18.845 | 4.729 |
| 24 | 24 | Gustavo MOURA | |
Speedy Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 2:20.166 | 6.050 |
| 25 | 20 | Márk JEDLÓCZKY | |
JLG Sport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 2:21.776 | 7.660 |
| 26 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | – | No time | N/A |