Pepe Oriola leads Craft-Bamboo Lukoil 1-2 in Sochi free practice
Pepe Oriola set a dominant early pace in Sochi to lead team-mate Sergey Afanasyev in the first free practice session at Sochi, Russia. Jean-Karl Vernay made a late improvement just under the chequered flag to claim third for Leopard Racing in the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
In the opening stages of the session James Nash was quicker than team-mate Pepe Oriola, while Dusan Borkovic completed a SEAT 1-2-3 for B3 Racing. The WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCRs were just behind, as Gianni Morbidelli was in fourth just ahead of team-mate and home hero Mikhail Grachev.
As the session continued Pepe Oriola dictated the pace, but Grachev was a surprising second and very close to the ballast-free Spaniard. Behind the two was Nash, ahead of Sergey Afanasyev and Gianni Morbidelli, while the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCRs struggled in the last two positions with Petr Fulìn ahead of Michela Cerruti, over three seconds off the pace.
Towards the end of the session several drivers improved their lap times, most notably Oriola, who improved by a further four tenths and confirmed himself as the pace setter for the first free practice session. Home hero Sergey Afanasyev was also a late improver, along with Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay, relegating Mikhail Grachev down to fourth.
Mat’o Homola finished in fifth ahead of Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini, while Dusan Borkovic improved by half a second in his last lap and jumped up to seventh. Nash failed to improve and had to settle for eighth, ahead of Attila Tassi and Gianni Morbidelli, who spent a lot of time in the pits before briefly heading back out on track with a slow lap time.
Besides Oriola’s lap time, all the rest of the field is quite close, as drivers from second to fifth are covered by as little as 0.028s.
The second session will start at 12:15 local time.
