Target Competition’s Nicola Baldan was the fastest driver in the opening TCR Europe practice session of the weekend at the Nürburgring, narrowly edging out championship leader Franco Girolami by just 0.063 seconds.
The series, which is supporting the DTM this weekend on the ‘Short’ configuration of the iconic circuit, resumes in Germany after a log eight-week summer break.
Baldan had posted the fastest lap after just over seven minutes of the session with an initial effort of 1 minute 36.200 seconds, before he was dropped from the top spot by Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov.
However, with just over five minutes remaining, Baldan returned to the to of the timesheets with his effort of 1:34.689 to go fastest of all in his Hyundai Elantra N.
Comtoyou Racing’s Girolami was the best Audi driver in second, whilst Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš put his Hyundai in third, also within a tenth of a second of the pace.
Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young was fourth and the top Honda, the Northern Irishman having held the top spot with his lap of 1:34.809 for most of the second half of the session after going quickest at the halfway mark.
Felice Jelmini was the next-best Target driver in fifth, 0.189 seconds off his team-mate, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel in sixth.
Gavrilov ended up as the best CUPRA driver in seventh, ahead of the second Janík Hyundai of Mat’o Homola in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Target’s Josh Files and Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola, the later being sill within eight tenths of the top time.
In all, 14 of the 17 cars to post a time were within a second of the pace.
Such was the pace of improvements in the session that Volcano Motorsport’s Isidro Callejas, who had topped the times just before the ten-minute mark with a lap of 1:35.478, ultimately finished down in 12th after failing to improve thereafter.
TCR Germany regular Jonas Karklys, making a one-off appearance in the series this weekend, was 13th in his Hyundai i30 N.
Of note, Mike Halder will not take part in this weekend’s races. The German, who is also contesting a season in TCR Denmark, had planned to take part in both events using the same car – the circuits being 675 km, or a nine-hour drive, apart from each other.
However, due to constraints of the timetable and the fact he would have missed the scrutineering window, Halder will race only in Denmark this weekend.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 16:40 CEST (15:40 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:34.689 | – |
| 2 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 14 | 1:34.752 | 0.063 |
| 3 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:34.762 | 0.073 |
| 4 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:34.809 | 0.120 |
| 5 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 1:34.878 | 0.189 |
| 6 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 14 | 1:34.964 | 0.275 |
| 7 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 1:35.067 | 0.378 |
| 8 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:35.119 | 0.430 |
| 9 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:35.198 | 0.509 |
| 10 | 74 |  |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:35.438 | 0.749 |
| 11 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 13 | 1:35.458 | 0.769 |
| 12 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 1:35.478 | 0.789 |
| 13 | 15 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 1:35.559 | 0.870 |
| 14 | 53 |  |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 15 | 1:35.568 | 0.879 |
| 15 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 1:35.697 | 1.008 |
| 16 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 1:36.145 | 1.456 |
| 17 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 17 | 1:36.166 | 1.477 |
| 18 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
| 19 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 0 | No time | N/A |