Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Benjamin Lessennes tops Free Practice 1 on a drying track at Spa-Francorchamps

Honda’s Benjamin Lessennes was fastest in today’s first free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. The Boutsen Ginion Racing driver finished ahead of Comtoyou’s Frédéric Vervisch in the Audi RS 3 LMS, with WRT’s Rob Huff in third.

At the beginning of the session the track was still damp, and drama started early on as Tom Coronel stopped due to problems with his Honda Civic TCR. Dusan Borkovic also had a troubled session as his newly-built Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR experienced teething problems in its shakedown.

In the early minutes of the session it looked like Reno Racing’s Jens Reno Møller was unbeatable, as the Norwegian Honda driver improved lap by lap to be up to two seconds quicker than the others. However, midway though the session, defending champion Stefano Comini started flying in his Comtoyou Audi, whereas team-mate Vervisch was steadier and improved at a much slower rate.

As Attila Tassi stopped at Turn 13, the track conditions continued to improve and get properly dry, so much that the TCR International Series newcomers made full use of the extra tyres they are allowed to use, improving under the flag to take the top six places.

Lessennes turned out to be fastest in hid Honda Civic TCR, ahead of Vervisch and Rob Huff, who decided to stop in the pits with two minutes to go. Guillaume Mondron, who had been quickest at one stage, finished fourth ahead of team-mate and brother Edouard, the latter at the wheel of a Volkswagen Golf. Coronel was sixth despite his issue early in the session, ahead of the first full-season entrant in seventh, Opel’s Pierre-Yves Corthals.

SEAT’s Stian Paulsen was eighth, ahead of Volkswagen’s Maxime Potty and defending champion Stefano Comini, with Jens Reno Møller slipping down to eleventh by the end of the session. Roberto Colciago went no further than 15th in his M1RA Honda Civic, with championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay right behind him in the WRT Golf. The Craft-Bamboo cars are lined up behind the Frenchman, with Hugo Valente ahead of James Nash and Pepe Oriola.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled for this afternoon at 16:00 CET.