Néstor Girolami edges out Santiago Urrutia in opening Spa practice

Néstor Girolami put the new Honda Civic Type-R FL5 on top of the times for the first time in the TCR World Tour at Spa-Francorchamps, as the ALM Motorsport driver edged out Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia by just 0.018 seconds.

Under sunny skies at the famous Belgian circuit, it was BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona and Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher who traded the top time in the opening eight minutes of the session, before Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff took over until the ten-minute mark.

TCR Europe full-season entrant Tom Coronel then rose to the top, setting a lap time of 2 minutes 30.441 seconds just over ten minutes into the session. The Dutchman then twice improved his time, ending up with a 2:30.054 at the half-way stage.

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Urrutia edged Coronel out six minutes later with a time just 0.015 seconds faster around the 7 km circuit, before Girolami in turn pipped the Uruguayan with just over two minutes of the session to go with his time of 2:30.021.

Coronel held third with his earlier fast lap as the leading Audi and TCR Europe driver, ahead of the second Lynk & Co of Ma Qing Hua in fourth.

John Filippi was fifth in his Comtoyou Audi, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk in sixth and the Audi of Huff in seventh.

Comtoyou’s Frédéric Vervisch in eighth was the only other driver within a second of the pace, the Belgian lapping just half a tenth slower than team-mate Huff ahead.

The top ten was completed by the TCR Europe Comtoyou Audi of Viktor Davidovski and the leading Hyundai of TCR World Tour entrant Mikel Azcona.

Although Ehrlacher lapped quickly early on, the Frenchman ended up in 11^th, 1.255 seconds off the pace, ahead of Felipe Fernández Gil in 12^th.

Dušan Borković, the top performer in TCR Europe last time out in Pau, was 13^th, a second and a half off the pace in his Target Competition Hyundai, ahead of the TCR World Tour BRC Elantra of Norbert Michelisz in 14^th.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 14:35 CEST (13:35 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:30.021	–
2	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:30.039	0.018
3	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:30.054	0.033
4	155		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:30.726	0.705
5	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:30.924	0.903
6	111		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:30.945	0.924
7	179		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:30.970	0.949
8	122		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:31.019	0.998
9	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:31.196	1.175
10	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:31.229	1.208
11	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	9	2:31.276	1.255
12	19		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:31.382	1.361
13	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:31.537	1.516
14	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:31.743	1.722
15	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	9	2:31.955	1.934
16	23		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:32.251	2.230
17	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:33.016	2.995
18	12		Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:33.024	3.003
19	264		Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:33.140	3.119
20	71		Ben BARGWANNA	Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:33.807	3.786
21	48		Mikael KARLSSON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:34.087	4.066
22	128		Philipp LINDBERG	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:38.328	8.307
23	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	2	8:31.616	6:01.595