Jean-Karl Vernay dominates Singapore Free Practice in Leopard Racing 1-2
Jean-Karl Vernay dominated the single Free Practice session in a very hot Singapore, despite being new to the tricky street track. The Leopard Racing driver was one second quicker than team-mate Stefano Comini and B3 Racing’s Dusan Borkovic.
Mikhail Grachev was fourth in the WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR ahead of title contender Pepe Oriola. The Craft-Bamboo driver was fifth ahead of fellow Lukoil-backed Sergey Afanasyev, with Gianni Morbidelli seventh after a last gasp improvement following rear suspension set-up changes.
The returning Loris Hezemans was eighth in the Target Competition SEAT, ahead of B3 Racing team-mates Attila Tassi and Mat’o Homola.
Championship leader James Nash was 2.5s slower than Vernay, ending up just outside the top ten in eleventh, ahead of the returning Kevin Gleason in the third WestCoast Racing Honda. Jordi Oriola went no further than 13th in the Opel Astra TCR, which was hit by balance of performance measures ahead of the weekend. The new Ford Focus TCR, driven by Martin Cao, finished the session in 15th, more than 5 seconds off the pace. The presence of a new model allows the technical department to revise their balance of performance decisions.
Petr Fulìn’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR was working on three cylinders, which meant the Mulsanne Racing driver went no further than 17th. Filipe de Souza never managed to get out on track as his Team Engstler Volkswagen suffered from electrical gremlins.
Action will resume tomorrow at 14:40 local time for the single qualifying session.
