Photo: TCR Media

Pepe Oriola leads SEAT-dominated Free Practice

By

Pepe Oriola led the way in the First Free Practice session at Sepang, Malaysia. The Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver put his SEAT León Racer ahead of Michael Nykjaer and Andrea Belicchi, both from Target Competition.

SEAT dominated the session, with drivers up to seventh all at the wheel of the Spanish cars. Craft-Bamboo put all cars in the top five, with Russian Sergey Afanasyev ahead of Jordi Gené.

Stefano Comini put in a strong performance with sixth, his Target Competition SEAT León finishing ahead of Zengo Motorsport’s single car entry Ferenc Ficza.

West Coast Racing were the fastest non-SEATs, putting their Honda Civic Type-Rs in eighth and ninth, with Gianni Morbidelli ahead of team-mate Kevin Gleason. The last top ten spot was taken by a Seat León again, with Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Lorenzo Veglia in tenth.

Oriola was the only driver to lap the Sepang circuit under the 2’21 barrier, but Nykjaer and Belicchi were both within half a second off the pace. The quickest Honda was Gianni Morbidelli’s, some 2.7s slower than the leader.

Campos Racing duo Jordi Oriola-Igor Skuz failed to set a lap time in their Opel Astras, the former suffering from water pump issues with his team-mate stalling in the pit lane due to electrical problems. Audi TT competitors Franz Engstler and Mikhail Grachev came 11th and 12th respectively, over four seconds off the pace.

Proteam’s single Ford Focus ST driven by Diego Romanini also failed to make it to the track, setting no lap time due to electrical gremlins.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled for 16.45 local time.