Pepe Oriola was fastest of all in the first four-hour test session at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, topping the time sheets in his Campos Racing-run Cupra TCR by just under a second ahead of new team-mate John Filippi.

Filippi led the way through much of the session, before Oriola moved ahead with just over an hour to go in his Cupra TCR, running in the matt grey colours of Cupra Racing, the new sub brand of Spanish manufacturer SEAT.

Third fastest was touring car newcomer Nathanael Berthon in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, just within a second of Oriola’s time, while Mehdi Bennani was fourth fastest in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

The two all-new Peugeot 308TCRs of Aurélien Comte and Mat’o Homola followed, ahead of the two BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCRs of Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz, with Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Romeo Ferraris Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR and Frédéric Vervisch’s Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS completing the top ten, 1.5 seconds off the pace.

24 cars took to the track during the session, though not all ran transponders throughout, most notably Münnich Motorsport, who were then asked to make sure they turned them on after two hours.

Yvan Muller was the fastest of the Yvan Muller Racing cars in 11th, with Muller’s nephew Yann Ehrlacher the fastest of the Hondas in 12th, 1.6 seconds from Oriola’s time.

The test will resume after a lunch break.