Dan Lloyd sets the pace in opening practice at the Red Bull Ring

Dan Lloyd put his Brutal Fish Racing Honda on top of the times in the opening free practice session for the TCR Europe series at the Red Bull Ring, pipping Stian Paulsen’s CUPRA in the final minutes of the session.

Lloyd went quickest inside the final two minutes, whilst Paulsen followed shortly afterwards by setting the second quickest lap, just 0.189 seconds slower than the Brit.

Luca Engstler was the leading Hyundai driver in third, the M1RA driver having been fastest for 15 minutes until Lloyd bettered his lap of 1 minute 37.334 seconds.

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WRT’s Maxime Potty claimed the bragging rights as the top Volkswagen driver in fourth, just ahead of WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in fifth.

The Volkswagen cars have been given a 10 kg weight break ahead of the weekend, along with the CUPRA cars, whilst the Audis have had their Balance of Performance [BoP] weight dropped by 20 kg.

PCR Sport’s Davit Kajaia put his CUPRA in sixth, ahead of the Boutsen Ginion Racing Honda of Tom Coronel in seventh.

The top ten was completed by the M Racing Hyundais of Nelson Panciatici and Natan Bihel, and WestCoast Racing’s Olli Kangas respectively, the latter being the last driver within a second of the pace.

Championship leader Julien Briché was just 23^rd in the second fastest of the Peugeot cars, which have had a 50 kg increase in their compensation weight for this weekend’s event.

None of the top five drivers in the points cracked the top ten in first practice, with Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus the best-placed in 14^th, whilst Mat’o Homola was 16^th and Josh Files 22^nd.

Second practice gets underway at 17:35 CEST (16:35 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	17	1:36.755	0.000
2	34	Stian PAULSEN		Stian Paulsen Racing	CUPRA TCR	15	1:36.944	0.189
3	8	Luca ENGSTLER		M1RA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:37.334	0.579
4	88	Maxime POTTY		Team WRT	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	1:37.509	0.754
5	45	Gianni MORBIDELLI		WestCoast Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	1:37.579	0.824
6	3	Davit KAJAIA		PCR Sport with Georgia	CUPRA TCR	17	1:37.625	0.870
7	50	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	16	1:37.655	0.900
8	12	Nelson PANCIATICI		M Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	1:37.665	0.910
9	25	Natan BIHEL		M Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:37.753	0.998
10	46	Olli KANGAS		WestCoast Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	1:37.821	1.066
11	10	Viktor DAVIDOVSKY		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	15	1:37.822	1.067
12	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	16	1:37.847	1.092
13	5	Alex MORGAN		Wolf-Power Racing	Renault Mégane RS TCR	11	1:37.951	1.196
14	16	Gilles MAGNUS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:37.973	1.218
15	30	Luca FILIPPI		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:38.015	1.260
16	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	1:38.038	1.283
17	99	Dániel NAGY		M1RA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:38.055	1.300
18	55	Santiago URRUTIA		Team WRT	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	1:38.061	1.306
19	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	1:38.064	1.309
20	7	Aurélien COMTE		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	1:38.113	1.358
21	62	Dušan BORKOVIĆ		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	1:38.342	1.587
22	9	Josh FILES		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:38.406	1.651
23	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	16	1:38.610	1.855
24	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	15	1:38.812	2.057
25	27	John FILIPPI		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	13	1:38.897	2.142
26	23	Tamás TENKE		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	14	1:38.950	2.195
27	112	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	1:39.014	2.259
28	111	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	16	1:39.046	2.291
29	66	Gilles COLOMBANI		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	16	1:44.382	7.627