Nicolas Taylor leads the way in opening Spa Practice

PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor topped the times in the opening practice session for the TCR Europe series at Spa-Francorchamps, over half a second clear of BRC Racing’s Alex Ley.

Canadian Taylor put in a series of quick laps towards the end of the session to usurp Nicola Baldan from the top of the timesheets, ultimately settling on a lap of 2 minutes 28.601 seconds to go quickest.

Championship leader Ley was second in his Hyundai, whilst Baldan ended up in third, 0.680 seconds adrift of his pace-setting team-mate.

The only other to be within a second of the pace was Monlau Motorsport’s Marco Butti in fourth, who was also the leading CUPRA racer.

Mike Halder was the top Honda for ALM Motorsport in fifth, ahead of the Aikoa Racing Audi of Santiago Concepción in sixth.

ALM Motorsport’s Max Hart was seventh, ahead of the second Monlau-run CUPRA of Viktor Andersson in eighth.

Thew top ten was completed by BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini and RC2 Racing’s series newcomer Michael Markussen.

British former TCR UK duo Adam Shepherd and Jac Constable were 13^th and 14^th in their CUPRA and Audi respectively, the only other drivers to post a ‘true’ lap time around the long Belgian circuit.

Sandro Pelatti, standing in at SP Compétition for Mikhail Simonov who is racing elsewhere this weekend, was 15^th, some 11.290 seconds off the pace.

24 drivers took to the field, with neither JSB Compétition Hyundais of Julien Briché or Raphaël Fournier present.

The only drama came when RC2 Racing’s Victor Chan Chun Leung stopped after Raidillon at the end of the 30-minute session.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 16:50 CEST (15:50 BST).

Session result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	17		Nicolas TAYLOR	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:28.601	–
2	76		Alex LEY	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:29.171	0.570
3	8		Nicola BALDAN	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:29.281	0.680
4	111		Marco BUTTI	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	10	2:29.321	0.720
5	7		Mike HALDER	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:29.880	1.279
6	33		Santiago CONCEPCIÓN	Aikoa Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	2:30.124	1.523
7	69		Max HART	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:30.180	1.579
8	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	2:30.184	1.583
9	12		Gabriele COVINI	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:30.328	1.727
10	18		Michael MARKUSSEN	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:31.024	2.423
11	22		Giacomo PRANDELLI	Aikoa Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:31.200	2.599
12	19		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:31.410	2.809
13	117		Adam SHEPHERD	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	2:31.545	2.944
14	11		Jac CONSTABLE	JH Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	8	2:32.209	3.608
15	72		Sandro PELATTI	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:39.891	11.290
16	37		Victor CHAN Chun Leung	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:54.620	26.019
17	85		Tiago PERNÍA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	3:05.542	36.941
18	73		Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	3:20.690	52.089
19	27		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	4:21.953	0.001
20	74		Victor WEYRICH	Herrero Racing	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	6:16.594	0.003
21	9		Tom CHIAPPE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	6	No time	N/A
22	24		Julien BRICHÉ	JSB Compétition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A
23	34		Stian PAULSEN	Stian Paulsen Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	0	No time	N/A
24	87		Junui PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A
25	97		Junesung PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A
26	145		Raphaël FOURNIER	JSB Compétition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A