The factory Honda driver set out his stall in the opening 30-minute session, a 1m15.666s putting him eight-tenths clear of runaway points leader Will Brown.

In the second session the Argentine picked up where he left off in the first, pulling more than a second clear of the field with a 1m15.841s inside the first 10 minutes.

At the midway point in the session he dipped below his Practice 1 benchmark for the first time with a 1m15.659s.

Girolami then landed the hammer blow with a little over 10 minutes to go, a 1m14.163s leaving him 1.4s up as Friday action came to a close.

A last-minute Liam McAdam lap gave him the second-best time of the day, the MPC Audi driver having been just 11th quickest in the first session.

Brown (HMO Hyundai) finished up third fastest, two tenths behind McAdam, followed by John Martin (Wall Honda) who improved from eighth in Practice 1.

Brown's closest title contender Dylan O'Keeffe had a quiet opening day, the ASM Alfa driver sixth quickest in P1 and 10th in P2.

Qualifying kicks off at 10:15am local time tomorrow.

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Results – Practice 1