Gilles Magnus leads the way in opening Jeddah practice

Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus was the fastest driver in first practice on the short version of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia, heading the times of the FIA World Touring Car Cup session by less than a tenth of a second.

Audi ace Magnus rose to the top of the times after just over half an hour of the 45-minute session, deposing team-mate Nathanaël Berthon with his lap time of 1 minute 17.024 seconds.

Then, just over two minutes before the chequered flag waved, Hyundai’s champion-elect Mikel Azcona went second, a mere 0.047 seconds slower than Magnus.

Berthon was left to settle for the third fastest time, the Frenchman over two tenths adrift in his Audi.

Macedonian wildcard Viktor Davidovski ran in the top ten times for much of the session, before the Comtoyou Racing driver ultimately ended up in an impressive fourth overall, just under four tenths off the pace.

Attila Tassi was the top Honda driver for Team Engstler in fifth, ahead of Azcona’s only title rival, Münnich Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami in sixth.

Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel was seventh, just over half a second off the pace, ahead of the returning Rob Huff in eighth as the leading Zengő Motorsport CUPRA racer.

The top ten was completed by Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz and Comtoyou’s Franco Girolami.

Three other drivers lapped within a second of the pace, with Hyundai’s Nicky Catsburg in 11^th, Zengő’s Dániel Nagy in 12^th and wildcard Saudi racer Ahmed Khaled bin Khanen in 13^th.

Honda racers Tiago Monteiro and Esteban Guerrieri propped up the times in their Team Engstler and Münnich-run Civics respectively, the latter after completing just 14 laps – fewer than any other driver.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:30 GMT (15:30 local time, 13:30 CET) followed by qualifying at 15:30 GMT.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	24	1:17.024	–
2	96		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	23	1:17.071	0.047
3	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	22	1:17.267	0.243
4	110		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	26	1:17.402	0.378
5	9		Attila TASSI	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	1:17.444	0.420
6	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	1:17.462	0.438
7	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	27	1:17.547	0.523
8	79		Rob HUFF	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	22	1:17.561	0.537
9	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	1:17.598	0.574
10	72		Franco GIROLAMI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	24	1:17.716	0.692
11	88		Nicky CATSBURG	BRC Hyundai N Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	24	1:17.742	0.718
12	99		Dániel NAGY	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	24	1:17.930	0.906
13	24		Ahmed Khaled BIN KHANEN	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	27	1:18.015	0.991
14	18		Tiago MONTEIRO	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	27	1:18.119	1.095
15	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	14	1:18.224	1.200