Tom Coronel leads the way in wet opening practice at Monza

TCR Europe championship leader Tom Coronel was the fastest driver in the opening free practice session at a wet Monza, a tenth and a half of a second ahead of Comtoyou Racing team-mate Viktor Davidovski.

Audis locked out the top six positions at the fast Italian circuit, with Coronel emerging as the quickest of the ten RS3 drivers entered into the event, lapping in 2 minutes 12.657 seconds, over 16 seconds slower than the lap record set in 2019.

Belgian Kobe Pauwels was third, just over four tenths adrift, with Lewis Brown, Nicola Baldan and John Filippi in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively ensuring that Comtoyou Racing locked out the top six places with all six of its entries.

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MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson was the ‘best of the rest’ in seventh, the Lynk & Co driver being the only other person with a second of Coronel’s pace.

Ukrainian newcomer Ivan Pelin was eighth in another Audi, with the top ten being completed by the ALM Motorsport Honda of Ruben Volt and Felice Jelmini’s Audi.

All other drivers were over two seconds adrift, with Giacomo Ghermandi in 11^th, Daniel Tkachenko in 12^th and Hyundai duo Levente Losonczy and Giovanni Scamardi propping up the times in 13^th and 14^th respectively.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 18:19 CEST (17:19 BST), just an hour before sunset.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:12.657	–
2	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:12.814	0.157
3	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:13.077	0.420
4	39		Lewis BROWN	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:13.128	0.471
5	8		Nicola BALDAN	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:13.231	0.574
6	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:13.236	0.579
7	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	2:13.459	0.802
8	29		Ivan PEKLIN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	2:13.907	1.250
9	127		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	2:13.959	1.302
10	44		Felice JELMINI	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	2:14.294	1.637
11	3		Giacomo GHERMANDI	LEMA Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2:14.804	2.147
12	7		Daniel TKACHENKO	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	2:14.830	2.173
13	264		Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:14.925	2.268
14	84		Giovanni SCAMARDI	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	2:15.550	2.893