Comtoyou Racing’s Kobe Pauwels set the benchmark in the TCR Europe free practice sessions at circuit Paul Ricard, with the Belgian going fastest of all in the afternoon’s second session.
His team-mate Tom Coronel had earlier topped the opening session of the day with an early lap of 2 minutes 13.714 seconds, three and a half tenths clear of Pauwels in second, who had also enjoyed brief spells at the top of the times.
But in an even hotter second practice, it was Pauwels who led the way, lowering the bar by over a second to a 2:12.454, edging out another of his team-mates, John Filippi, by just over three tenths of a second. When Pauwels first went fastest, he was over two seconds clear of anyone else, before the field closed him in later in the session.
Ultimately, across the board the times were quicker in second practice, where Comtoyou drivers occupied the top three places, with Coronel in third, just under seven tenths from Pauwels.
“It was a good session; to be honest, it was easy,” said Pauwels after FP2. “At the beginning we did some long runs again with tyres that have done a lot of mileage, as the races will be high temperature, especially on Sunday at exactly lunch time the asphalt will be cooking.
“We started with some very worn tyres to get a feeling ahead of that race, and once I had a good feeling on those tyres I boxed quickly for a new set of front tyres. We just did one lap, and apparently it was fast enough as we ended the day in a great P1.”
Target Competition’s Marco Butti – making his first appearance this year in the series – put his Hyundai in fourth, but over a second and a half off the pace, as the leading Audi trio opened up a huge time margin over everyone else.
SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte was fifth quickest – improving markedly from his FP1 effort – ahead of another Comtoyou Audi of Nicola Baldan in sixth, and Viktor Davidovski in seventh, making it five Comtoyou Audis in the top seven places.
Dušan Borković put his Target Hyundai in eighth, just over two seconds off the pace having failed to register a time in the opening session due to a faulty transponder.
The top ten was completed by ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt and Volcano Motorsport’s Lewis Brown.
Newcomer Sacha Bottemanne had been an impressive third fastest in first practice, less than a second off the pace in his SP Compétition CUPRA, but the 34-year-old slipped to 11th later in the day.
Ukrainian Daniel Tkachenko was 12th in the second Volcano Audi, albeit over three seconds adrift.
Although Aggressive Team Italia’s Levente Losonczy made it into the top ten in FP1, he was just 13th in FP2, whilst Viktor Andersson struggled for pace in his MA:GP Lynk & Co, having missed the top ten all day, culminating in last in second practice, over 3.5 seconds off the pace.
Qualifying takes place at 10:35 BST (11:35 CEST) on Saturday.
Free Practice 1 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 34 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:13.714 | – |
| 2 | 22 | |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 2:14.059 | 0.345 |
| 3 | 78 |  |
Sacha BOTTEMANNE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 2:14.676 | 0.962 |
| 4 | 127 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 2:14.706 | 0.992 |
| 5 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:14.748 | 1.034 |
| 6 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 2:14.764 | 1.050 |
| 7 | 264 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 2:15.096 | 1.382 |
| 8 | 39 |  |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:15.355 | 1.641 |
| 9 | 11 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:15.490 | 1.776 |
| 10 | 18 | |
Marco BUTTI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 2:15.672 | 1.958 |
| 11 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 2:15.731 | 2.017 |
| 12 | 76 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 2:16.277 | 2.563 |
| 13 | 7 |  |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 1 | No time | N/A |
| 14 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
Free Practice 2 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 22 | |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 2:12.454 | – |
| 2 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 2:12.758 | 0.304 |
| 3 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:13.151 | 0.697 |
| 4 | 18 | |
Marco BUTTI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 2:14.064 | 1.610 |
| 5 | 76 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 2:14.225 | 1.771 |
| 6 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 2:14.308 | 1.854 |
| 7 | 11 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 2:14.524 | 2.070 |
| 8 | 62 | |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 2:14.533 | 2.079 |
| 9 | 127 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 2:14.891 | 2.437 |
| 10 | 39 | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:15.034 | 2.580 |
| 11 | 78 | |
Sacha BOTTEMANNE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 2:15.364 | 2.910 |
| 12 | 7 | |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2:15.848 | 3.394 |
| 13 | 264 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 2:15.926 | 3.472 |
| 14 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:15.989 | 3.535 |