Néstor Girolami tops Friday morning test in Spain
Néstor Girolami led the way in the morning on Friday’s official pre-season test at Circuit de Catalunya, as he did yesterday, in the Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR.
The Münnich team have now led the way in all three segments so far, though the majority of drivers have said that no one appears to be pushing for time to not show their hand ahead of the season opener next weekend in Morocco.
Girolami, making his World Touring Car return this year after a year back in Argentina, was one-tenth of a second clear of Jean-Karl Vernay’s WRT Audi RS 3 LMS, with Girolami’s Honda team-mate Esteban Guerrieri third.
Ma Qing Hua and Kevin Ceccon were fourth and fifth fastest, with the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo duo declaring they were pushing flat out with the new Giulietta Veloce, both four-tenths and seven-tenths from Girolami’s time respectively.
New entrant Niels Langeveld was sixth quickest in his Comtoyou Racing Audi, the last driver within a second of Girolami, with PWR Cupra driver Mikel Azcona, WRT Audi’s Gordon Shedden, PWR’s Daniel Haglöf and Comtoyou Cupra driver Tom Coronel completing the top ten.
The best-placed of the new Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 TCRs was Yann Ehrlacher in 11th, 1.7 seconds off the pace.
The fastest of the Volkswagens was WTCR newcomer Benjamin Leuchter in 16th, 2.2 seconds down, while Gabriele Tarquini was the only Hyundai driver in the session, running in the three remaining cars of the BRC Racing Team.
The Italian set the 15th best time in the #88 car, 2.1 seconds slower than Girolami in the car which will be used by Nicky Catsburg this year, just before stopping and causing a red flag five minutes before the end of the session.
Testing resumes this afternoon from 2pm CET through to 6pm.
