Hyundai’s new signing Néstor Girolami was the fastest driver in the opening FIA TCR World Tour practice session at Vallelunga, edging out Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Santiago Urrutia by just 0.021 seconds.
Girolami’s best lap time of 1 minute 39.933 seconds was already four tenths of a second quicker than the pole position time of 2023, and just six tenths off the all-time TCR qualifying record, posted in last year’s TCR taly qualifying by Niels Langeveld of 1:39.388.
The Argentine quickly went to the top of the times, going quickest on his first flying lap just over ten minutes into the session.
Initially Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi had been second quickest in his Audi, but Urrutia put his Lynk & Co 03 in second around 20 minutes in with an effort of 1:39.954.
Filippi was thus third, just two thousandths of a second further back, with GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri the leading Honda driver in fourth, a further tenth a drift.
Reigning champion Norbert Michelisz was fifth in his Hyundai, ahead of Cyan Racing duo Ma Qing Hua and Yann Ehrlacher.
The top ten was completed by Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona, Volcano’s Sami Taoufik and GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti, with Cyan’s Thed Björk being the slowest of the full-season TCR World Tour entrants in 11th, just under seven tenths off Girolami.
Jacopo Cimenes was the ‘best of the rest’ in the Coppa Italia Turismo entrants, putting his new Honda Civic FL5 in 12th, 1.380 seconds off the top time.
There was a wide spread in the times of the rest of the field, with the field of 20 covered by 6.7 seconds.
Second practice is scheduled to take place at 14:55 CEST (13:55 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 1:39.933 | – |
| 2 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:39.954 | 0.021 |
| 3 | 127 |  |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:39.956 | 0.023 |
| 4 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 1:40.065 | 0.132 |
| 5 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:40.135 | 0.202 |
| 6 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 1:40.149 | 0.216 |
| 7 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:40.233 | 0.300 |
| 8 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:40.276 | 0.343 |
| 9 | 212 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:40.375 | 0.442 |
| 10 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:40.525 | 0.592 |
| 11 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 1:40.631 | 0.698 |
| 12 | 82 | |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:41.313 | 1.380 |
| 13 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:41.771 | 1.838 |
| 14 | 15 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:41.894 | 1.961 |
| 15 | 1 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:42.320 | 2.387 |
| 16 | 34 |  |
Ramazan KAYA | BF Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:44.538 | 4.605 |
| 17 | 4 | |
Giulio VALENTINI | GRT Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 1:44.914 | 4.981 |
| 18 | 5 | |
Demir ERÖGE | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:44.996 | 5.063 |
| 19 | 39 |  |
Tony VERHULST | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 1:45.461 | 5.528 |
| 20 | 77 |  |
Philipp MATTERSDORFER | Duller Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 13 | 1:46.663 | 6.730 |