ALM Motorsport’s Ignacio Montengro concluded the first day of the final TCR Europe weekend of the season with the top time in Valencia, lapping half a second quicker than Jimmy Clairet in second practice.
Wildcard entry Jenson Brickley had earlier topped the times in the first free practice session of the day around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo with a lap of 1 minute 41.744 seconds, but in the later afternoon sunshine Montenegro went even quicker, posting a time of 1:40.709.
Third in the standings, 19-year-old Montenegro is very much the outsider in this weekend’s title battle, 31 points adrift in the title race, but the Argentine ended Friday’s action with the bragging rights to the best lap.
Clairet was the best of the rest, putting his Comtoyou-run CUPRA Leon VZ in second, whilst championship leader Franco Girolami, carrying, the maximum 40 kg of compensation weight due to his success last time out, was third in his Monlau Motorsport-run Leon.
Girolami’s closest title challenger Aurélien Comte was fourth in the SP Compétition CUPRA, less than a tenth of a second further back, the Frenchman having earlier missed half of the opening session as his team worked to resolve an engine issue on his car.
ALM’s Ruben Volt was fifth, the Estonian youngster having effectively ended his title challenge by missing the last round in order to focus on his clashing commitments in TCR Italy, where he has also been vying for the title.
Comtoyou Racing’s Nicola Baldan, also a former title challenger in TCR Europe before missing the last round like Volt, was sixth in the leading Audi, ahead of MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson in seventh.
The top ten was completed by the only other three drivers within a second of the pace: GOAT racing’s Victor Fernández, Jenson Brickley’s self-run CUPRA and GOAT Racing’s Santiago Concepción.
Brickley was just under a second off the pace in FP2, even though the sole Brit in the field has to carry an additional 20 kg of new entry ballast.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 12:00 CEST on Saturday (11:00 BST) and will be streamed live on YouTube.
Free Practice 1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 12 | 1:41.744 | – |
| 2 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 14 | 1:41.780 | 0.036 |
| 3 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:41.949 | 0.205 |
| 4 | 11 |  |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:42.001 | 0.257 |
| 5 | 16 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 1:42.013 | 0.269 |
| 6 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:42.267 | 0.523 |
| 7 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:42.464 | 0.720 |
| 8 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:42.611 | 0.867 |
| 9 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:42.830 | 1.086 |
| 10 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 13 | 1:43.018 | 1.274 |
| 11 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:43.438 | 1.684 |
| 12 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 14 | 1:43.508 | 1.764 |
| 13 | 54 |  |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:43.696 | 1.952 |
| 14 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 10 | 1:44.320 | 2.576 |
| 15 | 59 | |
Daniel TEIXEIRA | JT59 Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:45.041 | 3.297 |
| 16 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:47.047 | 5.303 |
| 17 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | No time | N/A |
| 18 | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
| 19 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
Free Practice 2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 1:40.709 | – |
| 2 | 16 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 1:41.238 | 0.529 |
| 3 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 8 | 1:41.346 | 0.637 |
| 4 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 14 | 1:41.401 | 0.692 |
| 5 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:41.486 | 0.777 |
| 6 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:41.528 | 0.819 |
| 7 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 13 | 1:41.581 | 0.872 |
| 8 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 1:41.651 | 0.942 |
| 9 | 246 | |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 13 | 1:41.697 | 0.988 |
| 10 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:41.702 | 0.993 |
| 11 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:41.895 | 1.186 |
| 12 | 17 | |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 1:41.904 | 1.195 |
| 13 | 64 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:41.959 | 1.250 |
| 14 | 34 | |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 14 | 1:42.106 | 1.397 |
| 15 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 14 | 1:42.150 | 1.441 |
| 16 | 54 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1:42.630 | 1.921 |
| 17 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:42.944 | 2.235 |
| 18 | 59 | |
Daniel TEIXEIRA | JT59 Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:43.905 | 3.196 |
| 19 | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |