Santiago Urrutia topped the first FIA World Touring Car Cup practice session at Estoril, following a late push at the end of the session.
However, the drivers and teams were left waiting a long time to begin their track research ahead of qualifying. Issues with the timing facilities at the former Grand Prix circuit resulted in a delay of more than an hour, but luckily a remedy for the technical gremlins was eventually found.
Home hero Tiago Monteiro wasted no time in getting up to speed, and after the first round of flying laps, the Portuguese ace led the way with a lap time of 1:46.919. However, Monteiro was soon usurped by the CUPRA of Mikel Azcona, which was already looking more sprightly than it did at round one.
Yvan Muller was the next driver to go quickest in his Lynk & Co 03 TCR, but he too was soon toppled from the top of the standings, this time by Honda youngster Attila Tassi. The Hungarian was pushing hard already, as a brush with the gravel trap on his following lap showed.
With the already warm track surface continuing to heat up in the sun, lap times were expected to fall further as the circuit evolved.
That did indeed prove to be the case, as championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay then went fastest with a lap time of 1:45.781.
With half an hour of the session to go, disaster then struck for Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk, whose Lynk & Co ground to a halt in sector three following an electrical problem. With the car unable to be returned to the pit-lane quickly, it would be a race against time to get the Swede out again for Free Practice Two.
Shortly afterwards, Néstor Girolami became the third Honda driver to go quickest of all in this session, but only by a narrow margin, as he beat Vernay’s time by less than a tenth of a second.
But then, at the death of the session, Urrutia blew everyone else out of the water with a lap time of 1:44.876 – eight tenths of a second quicker than Girolami’s time.
The Honda contingent also had a late flurry of pace, with Tassi moving back up into second, albeit over four tenths of a second behind the Uruguayan’s benchmark.
Esteban Guerrieri also managed to shoot up to third after a relatively quiet opening session, just ahead of compatriot Girolami.
That meant that former pace-setter Vernay had now dropped to fifth on the leaderboard, with the fourth Honda of Monteiro ensuring that all of Munnich Motorsport’s cars placed within the top six.
Norbert Michelisz was next up in seventh place in his Hyundai Elantra N TCR, a couple of hundredths of a second ahead of Azcona in the first of the CUPRAs.
Frédéric Vervisch, meanwhile, was the top Audi performer in tenth, having been pipped to ninth place by Muller by just a few thousandths of a second.
Free Practice Two is set to get underway at the slightly delayed time of 12:05 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 18 | 1:44.876 | – |
| 2 | 9 |  |
Attila TASSI | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 18 | 1:45.316 | 0.440 |
| 3 | 86 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 17 | 1:45.500 | 0.624 |
| 4 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 19 | 1:45.690 | 0.814 |
| 5 | 69 |  |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 1:45.781 | 0.905 |
| 6 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 1:45.805 | 0.929 |
| 7 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 1:46.066 | 1.190 |
| 8 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 21 | 1:46.090 | 1.214 |
| 9 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 17 | 1:46.112 | 1.236 |
| 10 | 22 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 1:46.114 | 1.238 |
| 11 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:46.412 | 1.536 |
| 12 | 3 |  |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 1:46.425 | 1.549 |
| 13 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 14 | 1:46.441 | 1.565 |
| 14 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 1:46.561 | 1.685 |
| 15 | 28 | |
Jordi GENÉ | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 1:46.740 | 1.864 |
| 16 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 1:46.765 | 1.889 |
| 17 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 22 | 1:46.843 | 1.967 |
| 18 | 55 | |
Bence BOLDIZS | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 1:46.966 | 2.090 |
| 19 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 1:47.007 | 2.131 |
| 20 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 6 | 1:47.066 | 2.190 |
| 21 | 19 | |
Andreas BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 1:47.553 | 2.677 |
| 22 | 26 | |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 1:47.943 | 3.067 |