Dan Lloyd set the pace in opening practice for this weekend’s TCR Europe series round at the Red Bull Ring, while championship leader Julien Briché languished in 23rd place.

Lloyd recorded a session-best time of 1m36.755s to lead the way at the Austrian Grand Prix track in his Honda Civic TCR, with Stian Paulsen (Cupra) his closest challenger some two tenths down.

Luca Engstler and Maxime Potty ensured there were four different manufacturers at the sharp end of the field as they took third and fourth for Hyundai and Volkswagen respectively.

It was a tough start to the weekend for championship leader Briché, meanwhile, as BoP and compensation weight changes made ahead of the weekend appeared to hamstring the Peugeot fleet.

Aurélien Comte was the quickest of the 308 TCR drivers in 20th place, some 1.3s off the leading pace, with Briché a further half second back in 23rd.

Comte and Briché were among a host of drivers warned over track limits infringements – always a feature at the Red Bull Ring. Comte was even requested to report to the stewards following the session, along with Davit Kajaia, Tom Coronel, Gianni Morbidelli, Dušan Borković and the pace-setting duo of Lloyd/Paulsen.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled to start at 17.35 CEST.