After going unnoticed at the Nürburgring and Estoril, the Audi drivers got off to a good start at MotorLand. In fact, Tom Coronel set the best time in FP1 with a time of 2: 05.555. The Dutchman led the Audi treble ahead of Frédéric Vervisch and Nathanaël Berthon. For its part, Thed Björk has been fourth with the first of the Lynk & Co 03 TCR, although the Swede has remained eight tenths behind the leader. Gilles Magnus has closed the ‘top 5’ of the first session, while Mikel Azcona was sixth with his CUPRA León Competition.
The dominance of the Audi RS 3 LMS TCR was maintained in the FP2, although less clearly than in the morning session. Nathanaël Berthon took the best time after setting a lap in 2: 06.181, time slower than in FP1. All in all, the Comtoyou Racing driver has beaten Mikel Azcona by 166 thousandths. If the Spaniard has taken a step forward, the champion Yann Ehrlacher has followed the same path after placing himself in third position two tenths behind the leader of the session. Thed Björk has repeated in fourth position, while Norbert Michelisz was fifth with the first of the Hyundai Elantra N TCR.
If the first two free practice sessions have been written in the code of Audi ‘resurrection’, they have also been developed through the particular ‘decline’ of the Honda Civic Type R. With the maximum compensation ballast and the new ‘BoP’ settings, the Japanese TCR is far from the top spots. In fact, Néstor Girolami was the best Honda rider in FP2 after finishing 16th, 1.2 seconds behind the leader. Esteban Guerrieri, Attila Tassi and Tiago Monteiro finished in the wake of the Argentine rider. Only Bence Boldizs and the Bäckman brothers finished behind the drivers of Sling.