Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri emerged as the fastest driver in the first of two days of pre-season testing for the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in Barcelona, with the Honda driver having topped both the morning and afternoon sessions.

Guerrieri had earlier topped the morning session with a lap of 1 minute 54.738 seconds, heading the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo of Kevin Ceccon by just over half a second.

The Argentine then went two tenths faster with a lap of 1 minute 54.531 seconds in the afternoon under clear skies in Spain, as the Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay ended the day with the second fastest lap.

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“It was quite useful today,” said Guerrieri. “We tested some simulations on qualifying, which was actually quite useful because we encountered some issues in the front-right suspension, so we had to speed up the process as much as we could.

“I went out with only one run in ‘Q1’, let’s say, and all this was simulating a hot moment in qualifying. In the end this is what we were looking for, some things to improve and now we are going to sit down to see how we can improve the processes.

“Then it was just driving around with the car, some feelings we got set-up wise but not much because we already had a nice and good base. We are fine.”

Ceccon ended the day in third overall, although the Italian caused the afternoon’s session to be ended prematurely when he stopped on the circuit ten minutes from the end of the test.

The second WRT-run Audi of Gordon Shedden was fourth fastest, with the Brit being the only other driver to be within a second of the pace around the 4.655 km circuit.

Dutchman Niels Langeveld was the best of the rookies in fifth after posting his best time in the morning, ahead of the KCMG Honda of Attila Tassi in sixth, the Hungarian being 1.576 seconds off the pace after only lapping in the morning session.

The top Volkswagen was Rob Huff in seventh, ahead of the second Alfa Romeo of China’s Ma Qing Hua in eighth.

Completing the top ten were the CUPRA of Tom Coronel and SLR’s Mehdi Bennani, who was just over two seconds from the pace.

None of the two Hyundai drivers present broke into the top ten; reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini was 13th quickest, 2.197 seconds shy of the pace, whilst his BRC Racing team-mate Norbert Michelisz was 15th.

The brand new Lynk & Co 03 run by Cyan Racing failed to feature in the top ten as well, with Yvan Muller the best-placed for the Swedish outfit in 14th.

Thed Björk was just 20th, despite completing the joint greatest number of laps during the day. Along with the Hyundai the Chinese car is running at 97.5 % power output and with the second-highest (30 kg) BoP weight.

Guerrieri’s Münnich Motorsport team-mate Néstor Girolami was the only driver present at the test not to post a time. Absent from the test entirely were Frédéric Vervisch, Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg due to their clashing commitments in the Intercontinental GT Challenge at Laguna Seca.

Combined session results