Alain Menu signed Hyundai’s first high note in TCR, posting the fastest lap in Free Practice 2 at the wheel of his i30 N. However, it was a sweet and sour session for the BRC Racing Team, as Menu’s teammate Gabriele Tarquini stopped along the track on his first lap out with an oil leak.
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo’s Daniel Lloyd was classified second with a lap of 1:34.212 in his SEAT León, ahead of the Leopard Racing duo of Rob Huff (1:34.263) and Jean-Karl Vernay (1:34.370) who managed to consistently improve during the session in their Volkswagen Golf GTI cars.
A trio of SEAT cars filled the positions from fifth to seventh, with Lloyd’s colleagues James Nash (1:34.645) and Pepe Oriola (1:34.657) followed by Comtoyou Racing’s newcomer Denis Dupont (1:34.842).
Gianni Morbidelli posted the eighth best lap (1:35.013), with the fastest Honda Civic cars of Roberto Colciago in ninth (1:35.326) and Aurélien Panis in tenth (1:35.351). Dušan Borković placed the best Alfa Romeo in 11^th (1:35.381) ahead of Stefano Comini’s Audi (1:35.634).
Mat’o Homola sat in his garage for the whole session while the DG Sport crew was working on his Opel Astra to fix a suspected turbo failure.
Qualifying will start at 15:30 local time (9:30am CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.