Mikel Azcona set the pace in the first TCR Europe free practice session of the season at the Slovakiaring, with the returning champion edging out Franco Girolami by just over three tenths of a second.
Azcona rose to the top of the timesheets after 17 minutes with a lap of 2 minutes 10.985 seconds, which proved to be enough for the Volcano Motorsport CUPRA driver to remain at the top of the timesheets thereafter.
Prior to Azcona setting the pace, seven drivers shared the top time, with Felice Jelmini initially setting the quickest lap before team-mates Mehdi Bennani and Sami Taoufik took over.
Tom Coronel, in his Audi, then traded top times with Nicolas Baert, before PSS Racing’s Girolami went quickest with a lap of 2:11.294 in his Honda, before being deposed by Azcona.
“I’m very happy – this is the best way to start the season,” said Azcona. “We were here testing two weeks ago and so I think we have a very good set-up on the car.
“On my fastest lap I did two big slipstreams so that helped me a lot and I used 100% of the grip of the tyres, so it was a perfect lap.
“I’m very proud of the team and it’s clear that we worked hard during the winter. It’s only free practice, but it’s a very positive start.
“I’m sure the rest of the drivers will work really hard to beat me but we still have a big window to improve even more.”
Girolami was still quick enough to end the session in second, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Coronel in third, 0.466 seconds off the pace, heading up a trio of Audi drivers.
Russian Klim Gavrilov was fourth, 0.771 seconds off the pace, whilst Dušan Borković was fifth, the only other driver within a second of the quickest lap, 0.837 seconds slower than his 2018 TCR Europe title rival Azcona.
Guest entrant Dániel Nagy put his Zengő Motorsport CUPRA in sixth, ahead of Baert, who ended up in seventh.
Mat’o Homola was the quickest of the Hyundai drivers in eighth, beating the Sébastien Loeb Racing Elantra N drivers in his older i30 N.
The top ten was completed by the Peugeot 308 of Teddy Clairet and the second Janík Motorsport Hyundai of Jáchym Galáš.
After second fastest Girolami, the next best Honda was that of Northern Irishman Jack Young in 11th, the Brutal Fish Racing driver being 1.640 seconds off the pace.
After initially setting the pace, none of the Hyundai Elantra cars featured near the top of the times, with Niels Langeveld being the best of the quartet in 15th, over two seconds off the pace.
Reigning champion Mehdi Bennani was just 19th, ahead of Moroccan team-mate Sami Taoufik in 20th, the latter over three seconds slower than Azcona.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 15.55 CEST and will be streamed live on YouTube.