Dániel Nagy leads the times in opening TCR Europe practice

BRC Racing’s Dániel Nagy set the fastest time in the opening TCR Europe practice session at Circuit Paul Ricard, going quickest with a lap of 2 minutes 13.303 seconds at the end of the half-hour session.

The early pace under sunny and warm skies was set by the Peugeot 308s of brothers Jimmy and Teddy Clairet, who were the first to break into the 2 minute 13 seconds, before Néstor Girolami – this weekend taking over Viktor Davidovski’s Honda – set a time of 2 minutes 13.527 seconds after 20 minutes.

With just under ten minutes of the session to go, Target Competition’s Andreas Bäckman then went to the top of the times with a 2:13.334, which stood until almost the end of the session when fellow Hyundai driver Nagy ousted him by three tenths.

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Bäckman ended up in second, ahead of Girolami in third, as their top times from earlier stood as their best.

Jimmy Clairet was fourth, just under half a second off the pace, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani in fifth in the top Audi.

German Mike Halder was sixth fastest, ahead of Brutal Fish Racing’s top Honda of Daniel Lloyd in seventh.

Teddy Clairet was eighth, ahead of 2019 runner-up Julien Briché and Moroccan rookie Sami Taoufik completing the top ten.

Julien Briché’s son, Florian, was an impressive 11^th quickest on his first outing in the series, 1.2 seconds off the pace in the fourth-fastest Peugeot.

The second BRC Hyundai of Mat’o Homola was 12^th, ahead of the second Brutal Fish Honda of Pepe Oriola in 13^th, with the Spaniard making his series début this weekend.

Female racers Michelle Halder and Jessica Bäckman were 14^th and 15^th fastest in their Honda and Hyundai respectively.

Second practice is scheduled to take place at 14:19 CEST (13:19 BST), with qualifying for race one taking place at 09:00 CEST on Saturday (08:00 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	99	Dániel NAGY		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:13.303	0.000
2	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	2:13.334	0.031
3	29	Néstor GIROLAMI		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	11	2:13.527	0.224
4	21	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	2:13.793	0.490
5	250	Mehdi BENNANI		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	2:13.888	0.585
6	7	Mike HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	12	2:13.918	0.615
7	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	2:13.921	0.618
8	20	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	2:13.968	0.665
9	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:14.056	0.753
10	25	Sami TAOUFIK		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	2:14.314	1.011
11	4	Florian BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:14.540	1.237
12	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	2:14.641	1.338
13	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:14.644	1.341
14	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	12	2:15.002	1.699
15	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	2:15.309	2.006
16	8	Nicolas BAERT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	2:15.317	2.014
17	31	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	2:15.379	2.076
18	16	Evgenii LEONOV		Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	12	2:15.616	2.313
19	27	John FILIPPI		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	2:15.921	2.618
20	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	11	2:16.007	2.704
21	81	Stéphane VENTAJA		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	2:16.307	3.004
22	38	Lewis KENT		Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	2:16.406	3.103
23	66	Gilles COLOMBANI		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:16.792	3.489
24	6	Jean Laurent NAVARRO		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	0	No time	N/A