Stefano Comini fastest at Assen as Honda and Hyundai dominate

Autodis by THX racing’s Stefano Comini set the fastest time in the opening TCR Europe practice session at Assen, as Honda and Hyundai teams locked out nine of the top ten positions.

Comini took his Honda Civic Type R FK8 to a time of 1:44.915, putting himself nearly five-tenths of a second quicker than the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR of Reece Barr.

Barr’s team-mate – and title contender – Dusan Borkovic ended the session third fastest with a time of 1:45.680, some two-and-a-half tenths further back.

The Hondas and Hyundais proved the cars to beat over the course of the 30-minute session, with just local driver Danny Kroes’ Cupra in seventh preventing a complete whitewash of the top ten.

Barr initially set the benchmark pace with his 1:45.412 – a time he could not improve upon – to go three-tenths faster than Borkovic. The third Target Competition Hyundai of Kris Richard was close behind in third, a further tenth behind.

But Comini managed to extract the maximum out of his Civic just after the half-way marker and set the fastest time to end the session on top.

Behind the leading trio, Jens Reno Moller bounced back from a mechanical issue in the morning’s private test session to end up fourth fastest in his Honda Civic Type R FK8. The Danish driver set a time of 1:45.786, beating Richard by half a tenth.

Richard was fifth fastest ahead of M1RA’s Dániel Nagy, who was repeatedly warned for exceeding track limits during the session. The Hungarian is the sole entry in the team this weekend after Francisco Mora pulled out of the meeting.

Dutchman Kroes was the only Cupra to make it into the top ten in seventh, but was 1.204 seconds off the pace. The next best Cupra was that of championship leader Mikel Azcona, who recovered from a heavy lock-up and trip across the gravel at the final corner to finish up 12th.

Peter Terting impressed in his first TCR Europe appearance in the Autodis by THX Hyundai i30 N TCR car by setting the eighth quickest time. The German former DTM and WTCC driver made his TCR debut at the Nurburgring this month in the German series, and was quick out of the block.

The KCMG Honda Civics of Josh Files and Attila Tassi rounded out the top ten, while morning test pace-setter Jean-Karl Vernay could only manage 11th fastest in his Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS.

Two cars did not make it out for the opening session following incidents in the test. Igor Stefanovski and Loris Cencetti both crashed in the tricky wet-dry session, badly damaging the front-right corners of their Cupra and Hyundai respectively.

Another to suffer in the half-hour practice was Belgian Maxime Potty. The Comtoyou Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR driver suffered a loss of power exiting the final chicane and ground to a half on the pit straight.

Potty eventually managed to restart the car and post the 15th quickest time, one place ahead of Norwegian Stian Paulsen.

The second free practice session starts at 14:40 CEST.