Photo: TCR Series

Pepe Oriola blitzes the field in FP1 at Monza

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Spaniard Pepe Oriola emerged as the man to beat in the opening practice session ahead of the fourth meeting of the TCR International Series season at Monza.

Oriola produced a stunning lap of 1min 59.892secs on his final lap of the half-hour long session to go a full seven tenths of a second under Gianni Morbidelli’s qualifuing lap record.

It proved to be a good session for Oriola’s Lukoil Craft Bamboo Racing team, as James Nash slotted into second place, although the Briton was nearly seven tenths behind in the second of the team’s SEAT Leóns.

Roberto Colciago ran near the head of the times throughout the session before ending up in P3 in his Honda Civic – with the Italian being the final driver to lap within a second of the quickest time.

Davit Kajaia’s Alfa Romeo and the Hondas of Attila Tassi and Morbidelli rounded out the top six.

Series newcomer Jaap van Lagen was ninth quickest in the first of the two Leopard Racing VWs, although points leader Jean-Karl Vernay could only manage the 16th best time, more than 2.5secs off the pace.

Stian Paulsen was the only driver not to set a time due to an engine related issue on his SEAT.

A total of 19 cars will take part at Monza this weekend rather than the 20 that featured on the initial entry list, with Duncan Ende having elected to skip the meeting to allow his Icarus Motorsport team to upgrade the gearbox in his SEAT León TCR V3.