Gilles Magnus went fastest of all in the opening World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) practice session of the weekend, beating fellow Audi driver Nathanaël Berthon by just under three tenths of a second.
The young Belgian topped the first ever WTCR track session held at Motorland Aragón, setting a benchmark lap time of 2 minutes 6.045 seconds.
At the start of the session though, Aurélien Comte sprang an early surprise to lead the pack after the first round of flying lap times had been posted. But with a car still undergoing development, he was never likely to remain quickest. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the Frenchman was knocked off of his perch.
Home favourite Mikel Azcona started as he meant to go on in the Zengő Motorsport CUPRA, shaving over a second off of Comte’s lap time.
Four laps into the session however, the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co quartet suddenly awakened, with Thed Björk heading to the top of the pile. Björk’s reign was short-lived though, as Gabriele Tarquini soon went two tenths of a second quicker with a lap time of 2 minutes 6.741 seconds.
Faced with a new circuit this time out, there was still plenty of learning for the drivers to do, and plenty of lap time still to find.
In the end, Magnus made the largest improvement to set a time just short of the 2 minutes 5 seconds bracket, with Berthon not far behind.
Tom Coronel and Nicolas Baert in the other two Comtoyou Racing Audis didn’t have quite such a good time though, with driveshaft issues plaguing Coronel once again, leading to a brief red flag period when his car came to halt on track.
Baert meanwhile, failed to get out of the pitlane during his début session.
When the chequered flag was waved, Santiago Urrutia was once again the best-placed Lynk & Co driver in third, three tenths of a second quicker than stablemate Yvan Muller in fourth.
Tarquini failed to improve on his initial lap time, but that would still be good enough for fifth in the session standings, marginally quicker than championship leader Yann Ehrlacher in sixth.
The fourth and final Lynk & Co of Björk wound up seventh ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay, who was the the final driver to get within a second of Magnus’ pace.
Despite a couple of wayward moments, Néstor Girolami was the quickest of the ballast-laden Hondas in ninth, while Comte hung onto a place in the top ten in his Renault.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 13 | 2:06.045 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 17 | Nathanaël BERTHON |  |
Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 2:06.327 | 0.282 |
| 3 | 12 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 2:06.404 | 0.359 |
| 4 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 2:06.703 | 0.658 |
| 5 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 2:06.741 | 0.696 |
| 6 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 2:06.755 | 0.710 |
| 7 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 2:06.837 | 0.792 |
| 8 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR | 16 | 2:07.002 | 0.957 |
| 9 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 2:07.141 | 1.096 |
| 10 | 34 | Aurélien COMTE | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 18 | 2:07.290 | 1.245 |
| 11 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 2:07.312 | 1.267 |
| 12 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 17 | 2:07.328 | 1.283 |
| 13 | 55 | Bence BOLDIZS |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 17 | 2:07.446 | 1.401 |
| 14 | 40 | Josh FILES |  |
Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 2:07.555 | 1.510 |
| 15 | 1 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 2:07.710 | 1.665 |
| 16 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 2:07.881 | 1.836 |
| 17 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 2:07.999 | 1.954 |
| 18 | 31 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 2:08.137 | 2.092 |
| 19 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 2:08.350 | 2.305 |
| 20 | 99 | Gábor KISMARTY-LECHNER | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 18 | 2:11.147 | 5.102 |
| 21 | 15 | Nicolas BAERT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 2 | No time | N/A |