Kantadhee Kusiri leads first practice session in Thailand
Thai driver Kantadhee Kusiri had a perfect first appearance in the 2017 TCR International Series season, leading the way in the first free practice session for WestCoast Racing by just over a tenth of a second ahead of the Craft-Bamboo Racing pair of Pepe Oriola and James Nash.
Kusiri, who has been drafted in to replace Giacomo Altoè after the Italian joined the Honda M1RA team, took over at the top of the time sheets with just under ten minutes to go in the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, displacing the SEAT León of Pepe Oriola who’d led the way throughout the bulk of the session. The Thai driver, who also leads the TCR Asia Series drivers’ standings, had the benefit of all-new tyres for his first outing of the year.
The Craft-Bamboo SEATs looked strong throughout the session, though there’s a clear threat on pace from the GE-Force Alfa Romeos, with Davit Kajaia briefly leading the session, and with Serbian team-mate Dusan Borkovic eventually finishing fourth fastest in the Giulietta TCR.
Jean-Karl Vernay was the best-placed of the three main championship contenders in fifth in his Team WRT Volkswagen, with Norbert Michelisz the fastest of the Hondas in sixth.
Davit Kajaia finished the session seventh, with Mat’o Homola eighth in the DG Sport Opel, with the M1RA Honda of Attila Tassi and the WestCoast Volkswagen of Gianni Morbidelli completing the top ten.
The session was largely incident-free, with just two cars running into difficulty. Munkong Sathienthirakul’s Opel stopped on the start-finish straight before completing a lap, while James Nash’s SEAT stopped at Turn 6 just after the session had finished and missed the standing start practice session which followed.
A number of drivers were warned for track limits, including Pepe Oriola, Attila Tassi, Rob Huff, Norbert Michelisz and Aurélien Panis.
Stefano Comini was the fastest of the Audis, down in 14th position, while the quickest of the TCR Thailand class drivers was Chariya Nuya, 16th in the Billionaire Boys Racing Honda Civic TCR.
The second practice session gets underway at 12:30 ICT (7:30 CET).
