Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young was the fastest driver in a damp first practice session for the TCR Europe series on the streets of the Norisring, 0.173 seconds ahead of Target competition’s Josh Files.
Although the session began on a wet circuit, times soon improved with the emergence of a drying line.
That meant that Young’s top time of 59.075 seconds came with around five minutes of the session to go, just before Rubén Fernández made contact with Isidro Callejas as the latter left the pitlane.
Both the Audi of Fernández and the CUPRA of Callejas suffered heavy damage, and the session was brought to a swift conclusion.
“It was a very tricky session,” said pace-setter Young. “I don’t think the times were necessarily representative of how things are going to be this weekend but I think we got the strategy right for free practice by getting on the slicks at the right time.
“The conditions were very tricky and it’s a very, very tricky track with not a lot of corners so every centimetre of the tarmac is going to matter this weekend.
“Hopefully we can use it to the best of our advantage but we’ll see.
“I nearly hit the wall in that session, so we’ll have to be careful in the next one. To be honest, I don’t think we’re going to take much from today because of the weather and so I think tomorrow will be completely blind.”
Files, the best Hyundai driver, was just 0.173 seconds behind Young, with his team-mate Felice Jelmini in third, four and a half tenths adrift.
Janík Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola was fourth, just over half a second off the pace, ahead of Target’s Nicola Baldan in fifth, the last driver with a lap time under one minute. Baldan was also the fourth the Hyundai Elantra drivers.
Mike Halder put his Honda in sixth, just over a second off the pace, ahead of two more Hyundais, those of Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš in seventh and Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola in eighth, the latter getting familiar with his new car after a change of teams since the last round.
The top ten was completed by rookie Marco Butti, who had been fastest for a time after just over ten minutes, and Michelle Halder’s Honda.
Championship leader Franco Girolami was the second-best Audi driver in 11th, 2.161 seconds off the pace.
Patrick Sing took part in the session but due to a faulty transponder he did not record lap times.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 21 | 59.075 | – |
| 2 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 59.248 | 0.173 |
| 3 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 21 | 59.528 | 0.453 |
| 4 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 59.610 | 0.535 |
| 5 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 59.910 | 0.835 |
| 6 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 1:00.175 | 1.100 |
| 7 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 1:00.186 | 1.111 |
| 8 | 74 |  |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 1:00.480 | 1.405 |
| 9 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 20 | 1:00.521 | 1.446 |
| 10 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 15 | 1:01.115 | 2.040 |
| 11 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 1:01.236 | 2.161 |
| 12 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 1:01.373 | 2.298 |
| 13 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 1:01.456 | 2.381 |
| 14 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 1:01.518 | 2.443 |
| 15 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 1:01.604 | 2.529 |
| 16 | 39 |  |
Stian PAULSEN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 17 | 1:01.666 | 2.591 |
| 17 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 1:02.173 | 3.098 |
| 18 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 1:02.707 | 3.632 |
| 19 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 1:03.026 | 3.951 |
| 20 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 15 | 1:03.647 | 4.572 |
| 21 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | No time | N/A |