In a cold but sunny morning, TCR competitors completed their first practice session around Spa-Francorchamps and proved from the very start that competition on the Belgian circuit will be close than ever.
Five drivers took turns on top of the time sheet, and for long time the eighth fastest were only covered by one tenth of a second.
Eventually lap times dropped in the latest moments and Craft-Balboo Lukoil’s Sergey Afanasyev managed to post the fastest of 2:34.914, half-a-second better that local hero Pierre-Yves Corthals (2:35.480) in the SEAT run by Ferry Monster Autosport.
Afanasyev was the first one to post a reference lap of 2:38.43, but soon afterwards Pepe Oriola went down to 2:36.746, with Stefano Comini only five thousandths of a second slower.
Afanasyev came back and clocked a new fastest lap of 2:36.379, but then it was Comini’s time to go quicker in 2:36.306, with Corthals moving up to second (2:36.337).
One more change was prompted by Jean-Karl Vernay, as the Frenchman was clocked at 2:36.246 that did not last for long because Oriola improved to 2:36.238, while Dušan Borković (2:36.269) climbed to third.
As the session was about to finish, Corthals raised up the bar with a lap of 2:35.480, with Comini (2:35.814) in second and Oriola (2:36.071) in third. Then Afanasyev posted the fastest lap for good (2:34.914) on his last timed lap.
The best of the Honda drivers was Aku Pellinen in seventh (2:36.324), while Jimmy Clairet placed the fastest Peugeot in 11^th (2:37.324).
The only driver who did not take part in the session was Loris Hezemans, who had an examination at university; he is due to join for the second Free Practice session at 15:45 local time.