Photo: TCR Media

Pepe Oriola fastest in Free Practice 1

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Pepe Oriola clocked the fastest lap time in Free Practice 1 at Sochi, Russia. The Spaniard led all through the session despite being disallowed his best time due to track limits infringements.

With the track constantly evolving and several driver seeing their lap times disallowed, it was not until the very end of the session that the values of the field started to take shape.

Behind the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver was Tomas Engström in his Liqui Moly Team Engstler SEAT León Racer, making an impressive debut in the TCR International Series. Championship leader Gianni Morbidelli came home third, followed by Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Jordi Gené and Sergey Afanasyev.

Local man Mikhail Grachev finished sixth ahead of Target Competition’s Michel Nykjaer and Andrea Belicchi. Aleksei Dudukalo came ninth ahead of championship contender Stefano Comini, the Swiss struggling for pace in this session. The remaining two spots were occupied by the Hondas, with Kevin Gleason ahead of WestCoast Racing rookie Ildar Rakhmatullin.

Session leader Pepe Oriola commented: “It was a good session but we still have some work to do on the car, especially because the grip is not too good. The surface would need much more rubber on it. It’s already very warm in the morning, so heat will be a parameter to take into account for sure.”

Speaking of the heat, Morbidelli faces understeer issues, which are a common problem for the Honda Civic TCR in hot conditions: “We found a good pace, but we suffered from understeer, which is a usual issue on our car when the weather is hot. We need to try and correct this. Nevertheless, the gaps are very close, which is partly due to the fact that the track is not very selective.”

Touring car veteran Tomas Engström added: “The SEAT is fun to drive and I’m enjoying this TCR experience very much. We still have work to do on the car, but I am happy of how things are going. I definitely like the track, which is sort of in-between a street and a traditional circuit, with a mix of blind and very open corners. The key is how to handle track limits, to avoid sanctions, either the ones inflicted by the stewards or by the walls!”

Action resumes at 12.35 local time.