WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli led the way in free practice for the TCR International Series at Imola, posting the fastest time of the morning’s two sessions.
Morbidelli clocked the fastest time of the morning in the second of the practice sessions, which took place back-to-back due to the unique one-day format of the TCR timetable in Italy this weekend.
His new team-mate Mikhail Grachev was second fastest, 0.279 seconds behind, despite the Russian racer not having been behind the wheel of the Honda Civic TCR before, having switched from his normal Volkswagen Golf at Liqui Moly Team Engstler.
Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini put his Volkswagen in third fastest, just over half a second adrift, thanks to a stronger lap time in second practice.
Pepe Oriola ended the morning in fourth, having earlier topped first practice in his Craft-Bamboo Racing SEAT. The Spaniard ended up as the quickest of the León racers, despite carrying 20 kg of success ballast.
Jordi Oriola, this weekend racing a Honda entered by Target Competition, was fifth quickest, having found an extra half a second in second practice to move to within a tenth of his brother ahead.
Swiss racer Alain Menu ended the morning in sixth, having completed his first laps in the WestCoast Racing Honda. The former BTCC champion had earlier been third in first practice, after progressively improving his lap times to end the opening timed session 0.352 seconds off the pace.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Davit Kajaia was seventh, although the Georgian racer had to be warned about exceeding the track limits in the second session. The second Leopard Racing Volkswagen of Jean-Karl Vernay, who is the only other person after Pepe Oriola carrying success ballast this weekend, was eighth fastest.
Further down the times, TCR’s first all-female team of Carlotta Fedeli and Alessandra Neri ended the two sessions in 14th and 16th respectively, with Fedeli the most competitive at just over three seconds off the pace in her newer TCR-spec León.
Dušan Borković stopped on track in first practice with a broken left-rear wheel, and the B3 Racing driver did not post a competitive time in second practice as his team worked to fix the issue.
Qualifying takes place at 11:30 CEST (10:30 BST), with race one following at 14:15 CEST (13:15 BST) and race two at 15:30 CEST (14:30 BST).
Combined results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 1:53.351 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 10 | 1:53.630 | 0.279 |
| 3 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 7 | 1:53.917 | 0.566 |
| 4 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:53.962 | 0.611 |
| 5 | 33 | Jordi ORIOLA | |
Target Competition | Honda Civic TCR | 3 | 1:54.139 | 0.788 |
| 6 | 40 | Alain MENU | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 13 | 1:54.314 | 0.963 |
| 7 | 7 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 7 | 1:54.359 | 1.008 |
| 8 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 8 | 1:54.455 | 1.104 |
| 9 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:54.649 | 1.298 |
| 10 | 52 | Jordi GENÉ | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 7 | 1:54.830 | 1.479 |
| 11 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 10 | 1:54.885 | 1.534 |
| 12 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:54.943 | 1.592 |
| 13 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 1:55.101 | 1.750 |
| 14 | 41 | Carlotta FEDELI | |
B.D. Racing Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 1:56.388 | 3.037 |
| 15 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 2 | 1:57.517 | 4.166 |
| 16 | 42 | Alessandra NERI | |
B.D. Racing Motorsport | SEAT León Cup Racer | 14 | 1:58.877 | 5.526 |
Complete Free Practice 1 Results.
Complete Free Practice 2 Results.