Franco Girolami heads opening practice at Spa-Francorchamps

TCR Europe leader Franco Girolami was the fastest driver in Thursday’s first practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, edging out CUPRA returnee Mikel Azcona.

Girolami pipped Volcano Motorsport’s Azcona to the fastest lap in the closing seconds of the session, ultimately ending up over half a second clear of the Spaniard in his Honda.

“I’m very happy; the entire PSS Racing team did a very good job and the car was very fast,” said Girolami. “But you know, this is only FP1 – all the other drivers will be faster in the other sessions and so we need to improve.

“I put two new tyres on the car but we don’t know what the other drivers did, that’s the most important point. We also made some changes to the car, and it was very, very good as a result.”

Azcona, who had to miss the previous event due to a calendar clash, was second, giving him hope of reigniting his title challenge to Argentine Girolami, who is just 11 points ahead in the standings.

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani was the best of the Hyundai Elantra drivers in third, almost nine tenths off the pace, heading up fellow Moroccan and Hyundai racer Sami Taoufik in fourth, the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Brutal Fish Racing’s Isidro Callejas was fifth fastest with a late effort, ahead of team-mate Jack Young in sixth.

Klim Gavrilov was the top Audi driver in seventh, the Russian having briefly been in the top three earlier in the session before he had to pull up at Turn 6 with a puncture later on.

Felice Jelmini put his Hyundai in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308s of Jimmy and Teddy Clairet.

Only 20 drivers are taking part in this weekend’s event after Macedonian Viktor Davidovski and Hungarian Dániel Nagy elected to skip the event.

Nicolas Baert put his Audi in 11^th, the Belgian having had a lap time deleted after repeatedly exceeding track limits. His Comtoyou Racing team-mate Tom Coronel also lost a lap time for the same reason and ended the session in 13^th.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 15:55 BST (16:55 CEST), whilst Friday’s track action sees qualifying at 11:30 BST (12:30 CEST) followed by race one at 17:30 BST (18:30 CEST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	72		Franco GIROLAMI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:31.492	–
2	96		Mikel AZCONA	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	2:32.005	0.513
3	250		Mehdi BENNANI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:32.366	0.874
4	25		Sami TAOUFIK	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:32.428	0.936
5	26		Isidro CALLEJAS	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:32.548	1.056
6	62		Jack YOUNG	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:32.554	1.062
7	14		Klim GAVRILOV	VRC-Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	2:32.781	1.289
8	44		Felice JELMINI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:32.813	1.321
9	21		Jimmy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:32.842	1.350
10	20		Teddy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:33.167	1.675
11	8		Nicolas BAERT	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	2:33.269	1.777
12	17		Martin RYBA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:33.472	1.980
13	32		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	2:33.508	2.016
14	162		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	2:33.521	2.029
15	16		Evgenii LEONOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	9	2:33.674	2.182
16	70		Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	2:33.818	2.326
17	10		Niels LANGEVELD	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:33.866	2.374
18	77		Sylvain PUSSIER	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	11	2:34.334	2.842
19	24		Jáchym GALÁŠ	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	2:34.515	3.023
20	66		Gilles COLOMBANI	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	11	2:36.703	5.211