Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park put his Hyundai on top of the times in the opening TCR Europe practice session at the Red Bull Ring, less than a tenth ahead of the Audi of Jimmy Clairet.
Park hit the top of the timesheets just under nine minutes into the session, the South Korean driver initially lapping in 1 minute 37.803 seconds.
However, two minutes later his lap was bettered by Clairet, who was eight hundredths of a second quicker, but Park usurped that two minutes later, topping the times with a 1:37.649 just before the halfway stage.
Park remained on top thereafter, whilst Clairet stayed in second, despite Nicolas Taylor briefly going quicker in the final seconds before his lap was removed due to exceeding track limits.
Series newcomer René Kircher was an impressive third fastest in the leading ALM Motorsport Honda, ahead of the top CUPRA of Monlau Motorsport’s Jenson Brickley in fourth.
Taylor ended up fifth fastest and the top Audi driver, 0.251 seconds off the pace, ahead of championship leader Teddy Clairet in sixth.
MM Motorsport’s Jacopo Cimenes was seventh, ahead of Target Competition’s Max Hart in eighth – the Irishman had been fifth with three minutes to go before improvements from Kircher, Brickley and Cimenes.
The top ten was completed by Aikoa Racing’s Nicola Baldan and MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson in the sole Lynk & Co 03 in the field.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 16:15 CEST (15:15 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 97 |  |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:37.649 | – |
| 2 | 21 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:37.727 | 0.078 |
| 3 | 108 |  |
René KIRCHER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:37.825 | 0.176 |
| 4 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 14 | 1:37.848 | 0.199 |
| 5 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:37.900 | 0.251 |
| 6 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:37.909 | 0.260 |
| 7 | 82 |  |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:37.952 | 0.303 |
| 8 | 69 |  |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 1:37.964 | 0.315 |
| 9 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:38.048 | 0.399 |
| 10 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 1:38.079 | 0.430 |
| 11 | 28 |  |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 14 | 1:38.151 | 0.502 |
| 12 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:38.219 | 0.570 |
| 13 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:38.264 | 0.615 |
| 14 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | 1:38.284 | 0.635 |
| 15 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:38.368 | 0.719 |
| 16 | 80 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:38.646 | 0.997 |
| 17 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1:38.648 | 0.999 |
| 18 | 145 | |
Raphaël FOURNIER | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:39.047 | 1.398 |
| 19 | 45 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 1:39.272 | 1.623 |
| 20 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 1:39.363 | 1.714 |
| 21 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1:39.619 | 1.970 |
| 22 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:47.944 | 10.295 |
| 23 | 4 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
| 24 | 286 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | No time | N/A |