Julien Briché tops dry second practice at Monza

Julien Briché put his Peugeot on top of the times in a dry second TCR Europe free practice session at Monza, over half a second clear of the Audi of first practice pace-setter Mehdi Bennani.

After the first session at Monza was disrupted by significant rainfall, second practice took place on a dry circuit, allowing drivers to get in more meaningful running ahead of the weekend’s races.

Whilst Brutal Fish Racing’s Pepe Oriola had been the first driver to break below the 2-minute mark after six minutes, before BRC Racing’s Mat’o Homola had a brief spell at the top of the times, it was mostly Briché and Bennani trading top times in the second half of the session.

Comtoyou Racing’s Bennani took P1 just before the halfway stage with an effort of 1 minute 59.185 seconds, before being ousted by one-off entrant Felice Jelmini and then Briché, who put in an effort of 1:58.723.

Bennani then improved to a 1:58.723, followed by a 1:58.377, but it was Briché who ended the session fastest, the JSB Compétition driver putting in two quick laps late on to end with a best lap of 1:57.726.

Briché’s best lap was still almost 1.4 seconds slower than his ;pole position time set at the circuit last year.

Bennani ended the session in second, 0.651 seconds back, ahead of the Peugeot of Jimmy Clairet in third.

Sami Taoufik made it another strong session for Comtoyou Racing, putting his Audi in fourth just over a second adrift, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Target Competition’s Jessica Bäckman in fifth.

BRC Racing’s Mat’o Homola was sixth, ahead of the fastest Honda of Pepe Oriola in seventh, the Spaniard 1.1 seconds adrift of the pace.

The top ten was completed by Target’s John Filippi, PMA Motorsport’s Jelmini and the second Clairet Peugeot of Teddy Clairet.

The brand new Fiat Tipo TCR, being run by Tecnodom Sport and driven by the experienced Luca Rangoni, was 21^st fastest in its first session in the dry, just over four seconds off the pace.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 10:55 CEST (09:55 BST) on Saturday.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	1:57.726	0.000
2	250	Mehdi BENNANI		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	1:58.377	0.651
3	21	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	1:58.694	0.968
4	25	Sami TAOUFIK		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	1:58.729	1.003
5	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	1:58.732	1.006
6	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	1:58.763	1.037
7	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	1:58.887	1.161
8	27	John FILIPPI		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	1:58.999	1.273
9	44	Felice JELMINI		PMA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	1:59.032	1.306
10	20	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	1:59.043	1.317
11	99	Dániel NAGY		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	1:59.043	1.317
12	7	Mike HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	1:59.129	1.403
13	8	Nicolas BAERT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	1:59.174	1.448
14	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	1:59.498	1.772
15	10	Viktor DAVIDOVSKI		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	1:59.725	1.999
16	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	11	1:59.732	2.006
17	16	Evgenii LEONOV		Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	12	1:59.922	2.196
18	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	1:59.932	2.206
19	6	Jean Laurent NAVARRO		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	9	2:00.844	3.118
20	66	Gilles COLOMBANI		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	2:01.457	3.731
21	64	Luca RANGONI		Tecnodom Sport	Fiat Tipo TCR	9	2:01.818	4.092
22	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	2:02.030	4.304
23	15	Kevin GIACON		Tecnodom Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	2:02.112	4.386
24	81	Stéphane VENTAJA		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	2:02.196	4.470