Santiago Concepción emerged as the fastest driver after four unofficial TCR Europe tests at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s second round of the season in Belgium.
The timetable this weekend features no official ‘free practice’ sessions prior to qualifying, with drivers instead able to take part in four unofficial tests on the Thursday prior to the event.
The first session got underway in the late morning at Spa on Thursday under sunny skies, and it was PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor who set the early benchmark.
However, the majority of drivers didn’t post their best time in the initial session, which was ultimately red-flagged and not restarted after RC2 Racing’s Concepción spun off into the gravel at Les Combes and became stuck.
In the second session, Concepción lapped comfortably below the qualifying lap record of 2 minutes 28.735 seconds, which was posted back in 2018 by Jean-Karl Vernay.
Concepción’s time of 2:28.174 ultimately went on to stand as the best lap of the day, just under a tenth of a second faster than MM Motorsport’s Marco Butti, whilst ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt was third, two tenths adrift.
Butti was fastest in the third session before the Honda driver went off at Eau Rouge, the accident ripping two wheels off his car, which ended up on its roof. Butti walked away from the crash, as the session was red-flagged.
The fourth session was topped by PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor, who ended up with the fourth-best time of the day as a result, just over a quarter of a second off Concepción’s best earlier in the day.
Eric Gené was fifth fastest overall in the best Monlau Motorsport CUPRA, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Julien Briché in sixth, the latter also putting in his best time late in the day.
Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park was seventh overall, ahead of the second Monlau CUPRA of Jenson Brickley in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Team Clairet’s Jimmy Clairet and Target Competition’s Max Hart.
The final session was also ultimately red-flagged when MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson stopped on track with an oil pressure problem at Stavelot.
Two drivers are making their TCR Europe début this weekend, as ALM Motorsport expands to three cars. Estonian drivers Sven Karuse and Sten-Dorian Piirimägi are at the wheel of two Hondas, accompanying Ruben Volt in the team.
Piirimägi made his TCR début earlier this year and is already a race winner in TCR Spain, whilst Karuse took part in TCR Spain last year with the team, scoring a best finish of eighth.
Qualifying takes place at 12:55 CEST (11:55 BST) on Friday; both races are on Saturday, at 12:25 CEST (11:25 BST) and 17:15 CEST (16:15 BST) respectively.
Combined testing results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 35 | 2:28.174 | – |
| 2 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 25 | 2:28.260 | 0.086 |
| 3 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 33 | 2:28.379 | 0.205 |
| 4 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 41 | 2:28.459 | 0.285 |
| 5 | 28 | |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 42 | 2:28.618 | 0.444 |
| 6 | 4 |  |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 2:28.719 | 0.545 |
| 7 | 97 |  |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 25 | 2:28.920 | 0.746 |
| 8 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 48 | 2:28.969 | 0.795 |
| 9 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 35 | 2:29.043 | 0.869 |
| 10 | 69 |  |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 38 | 2:29.055 | 0.881 |
| 11 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 35 | 2:29.064 | 0.890 |
| 12 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 34 | 2:29.104 | 0.930 |
| 13 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 2:29.264 | 1.090 |
| 14 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 30 | 2:29.423 | 1.249 |
| 15 | 237 | |
Sten-Dorian PIIRIMÄGI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 44 | 2:29.572 | 1.398 |
| 16 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 25 | 2:29.634 | 1.460 |
| 17 | 80 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 2:30.622 | 2.448 |
| 18 | 6 | |
Jean-Laurent NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 46 | 2:31.681 | 3.507 |
| 19 | 98 | |
Pierre-Arnaud NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 40 | 2:32.109 | 3.935 |
| 20 | 45 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 35 | 2:32.604 | 4.430 |
| 21 | 79 | |
Sven KARUSE | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 39 | 2:34.527 | 6.353 |
| 22 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | No time | N/A |