John Filippi sets the early pace at Circuit Paul Ricard

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi was the fastest driver in the first TCR Europe free practice session at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, with the session being red-flagged in the final minute due to debris on track.

Filippi put his CUPRA on top of the times with around four minutes remaining to go quickest with a lap of 2 minutes 13.644 seconds, edging out Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel, who had been quickest until that point with his effort of 2:13.907.

That left Audi driver Coronel two and a half tenths of a second adrift, with Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young in third being the fastest of the Honda drivers, 0.331 seconds off Filippi.

“I think we made a big step between Portimão and now and we showed this in free practice 1one,” said Filippi. “For sure this was a better start to the weekend than at the last round.

“You have to remember that it’s a totally new car for me and for the team so there is a lot of space to improve to find the right set-up.

“It’s good for the confidence of me and the team but it’s far from over. We have another free practice, then qualifying and then two races to try to get maximum points and I’m sure everyone else will be working hard to improve.”

Championship leader Franco Girolami put his Comtoyou Audi in fourth, ahead of the top Hyundai of Janík Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola in fifth.

Italian Felice Jelmini was sixth fastest in the first of the Target Competition Hyundais, half a second off the pace.

Viktor Davidovski had been in the top four in the first half of the session, before the Macedonian driver slipped to seventh at the end, still within half a second of his fastest Comtoyou team-mate.

The top ten was completed by Spaniards Isidro Callejas and Pepe Oriola, in their CUPRA and Hondas respectively, and Russian Kilm Gavrilov in the second of the Volcano Motorsport CUPRAs.

Numerous track limit warnings were issued for infringements at Turns 2, 7, 8 and 10. Nicola Baldan (14^th), Cellejas, Martin Ryba (16^th) and Young all had lap times deleted for going too far during the session.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 17:30 CEST (16:30 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	27		John FILIPPI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	2:13.644	–
2	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	12	2:13.907	0.263
3	62		Jack YOUNG	Halder Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	10	2:13.975	0.331
4	72		Franco GIROLAMI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	10	2:14.023	0.379
5	70		Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:14.085	0.441
6	44		Felice JELMINI	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:14.169	0.525
7	110		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	10	2:14.266	0.622
8	26		Isidro CALLEJAS	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	2:14.299	0.655
9	74		Pepe ORIOLA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	11	2:14.450	0.806
10	14		Klim GAVRILOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	2:14.684	1.040
11	3		Giacomo GHERMANDI	Lema Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	2:15.030	1.386
12	16		Evgenii LEONOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	2:15.118	1.474
13	81		Stéphane VENTAJA	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	8	2:15.133	1.489
14	8		Nicola BALDAN	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:15.168	1.524
15	24		Jáchym GALÁŠ	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:15.177	1.533
16	17		Martin RYBA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	2:15.362	1.718
17	7		Mike HALDER	Halder Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	10	2:15.427	1.783
18	53		Michelle HALDER	Halder Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	9	2:15.688	2.044
19	66		Gilles COLOMBANI	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	8	2:16.462	2.818
20	99		Josh FILES	Target Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	0	No time	N/A