Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus pipped fellow Audi racer Santiago Urrutia to the quickest time in first practice for the TCR Europe series in Barcelona, with the Belgian going two tenths faster than the Uruguayan in the final minute of the session.

The early pace was set by Team Clairet Sport’s Jimmy Clairet, who initially put his Peugeot 308 TCR on top of the times with a lap of 1 minute 55.104 seconds.

That was then bettered by WRT’s Urrutia, who put in a lap which was two tenths better to go to P1 in the final five minutes of the session.

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However young Belgian Magnus then went even quicker to end first practice with the best time, ahead of Urrutia and WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in third.

“It’s still Free Practice, but it feels good to be P1 because that’s how you know how the car is on this track and how is the BoP,” said Magnus. “It looks pretty good and so I think we may be very happy.

“Tomorrow will probably be raining, so let’s see what happens, but I think it will be a tough weekend. The problem will be that we won’t have driven in the rain before qualifying, so let’s see.

“Being P1 gives confidence and a good feeling for me and also for the team, so it’s nice. After two difficult weekends, this weekend should be ours again – that’s how it goes in TCR, sometimes it’s Hyundai or CUPRA or Honda and now it should be our weekend, if it stays dry!”

Brutal Fish Racing’s Dan Lloyd was the leading Honda driver in fourth after the Brit improved several times in the final few minutes, leaving Clairet in fifth with his lap from early in the session.

Teddy Clairet was just behind his brother in sixth, whilst JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché made it three Peugeots in a row with the seventh-best time.

The second WRT car, the best Volkswagen of Maxime Potty, was eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the leading Hyundai of M Racing’s Nelson Panciatici and Target Competition’s Andreas Bäckman.

Championship leader Josh Files failed to post a time, along with series returnee Francisco Mora, both due to transponder issues, although both drivers did lap the circuit.

35 cars are taking part in TCR Europe this weekend, after the addition of six new drivers: Brit Jack Young at Vuković Motorsport, Estonian drivers Robin Vaks and Mattias Vahtel at ALM Honda Racing, Russian Evgeni Leonov at Tecnicars Racing, and Portuguese duo Gustavo Moura and Francisco Mora at Novadriver and Veloso Motorsport respectively. The latter five are regular competitors in the TCR Iberico series.

Second practice gets underway at 18:05 CEST (17:05 BST).

Session results