Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport’s Gordon Shedden was quickest on cumulative times across both days of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR)’s pre-season test at Circuit de Barcelona.
The triple British Touring Car Champion – who told TouringCars.net he heads into his second campaign in the category ‘a lot better prepared’ than before – posted a best time of 1:54.434 around the 2.89-mile Catalan circuit.
That effort proved enough to edge out Munnich Motorsport racer Nestor Girolami’s Honda Civic Type R FK8 by 0.074 seconds.
“Let’s not get carried away, everybody’s playing about doing lots of different strange, weird and wonderful things,” said Shedden.
“The lap time isn’t actually that fast but we made some good progress on the car, we’re working hard at it, but today means absolutely nothing, it’s about next week.
“We were just trying lots of different things, trying to understand the car because winter testing has been a bit limited.
“Everything has been just information-gathering these last two days, now we’ve got to digest it and understand the best way forward for Marrakech.”
Girolami’s team-mate and compatriot Esteban Guerrieri was classified third, a further 0.023s back, whilst Shedden’s stablemate – 2017 TCR International Series Champion Jean-Karl Vernay – underlined the initial pace of the Audi RS3 LMS in fourth.
Team Mulsanne’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR pairing were fifth and sixth – Ma Qinghua ahead of Kevin Ceccon – whilst series newcomer Niels Langeveld was seventh in the leading Comtoyou Racing Audi.
Attila Tassi was eighth for KCMG in their Honda FK8, with Daniel Hagelof’s CUPRA and Yann Ehrlacher, the latter leading the line for Lynk & Co.
Rob Huff was eleventh in the Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR for Sebastien Loeb Racing, 2018 TCR Europe Champion Mikel Azcona was twelfth and Comtoyou newcomer Tom Coronel was thirteenth.
2018 WTCR Vice-Champion Yvan Muller came next ahead of the SLR VWs of Medhi Bennani and Benjamin Leuchter.
Aurelien Panis was seventeenth, with some surprising names at the foot on the timesheets in Andy Priaulx (18th), reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini’s Hyundai i30 N TCR (19th), fans’ favourites Tiago Monteiro (21st) and Norbert Michelisz (22nd) and Thed Bjork (24th).
The first round of the new season gets underway in Morocco over the weekend of 6th-7th April, 2019.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN |  |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1:54.434 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1:54.508 | 0.074 | |
| 3 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1:54.531 | 0.097 | |
| 4 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1:54.839 | 0.405 | |
| 5 | 55 | Ma QING HUA |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 1:54.926 | 0.492 | |
| 6 | 31 | Kevin CECCON |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 1:55.244 | 0.810 | |
| 7 | 10 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1:55.615 | 1.181 | |
| 8 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1:56.107 | 1.673 | |
| 9 | 37 | Daniel HAGLÖF |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 1:56.120 | 1.686 | |
| 10 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 1:56.212 | 1.778 | |
| 11 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1:56.290 | 1.856 | |
| 12 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 1:56.305 | 1.871 | |
| 13 | 50 | Tom CORONEL | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 1:56.361 | 1.927 | |
| 14 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 1:56.565 | 2.131 | |
| 15 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1:56.591 | 2.157 | |
| 16 | 33 | Benjamin LEUCHTER |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1:56.606 | 2.172 | |
| 17 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 1:56.643 | 2.209 | |
| 18 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 1:56.710 | 2.276 | |
| 19 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1:56.728 | 2.294 | |
| 20 | 88 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1:56.974 | 2.540 | |
| 21 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1:57.023 | 2.589 | |
| 22 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1:57.049 | 2.615 | |
| 23 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON | |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1:57.115 | 2.681 | |
| 24 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 1:57.323 | 2.889 | |
| 25 | 8 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1:57.733 | 3.299 |