Photo: TCR

Gilles Magnus heads opening practice in Barcelona

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Gilles Magnus posted the quickest time in first practice ahead of the penultimate weekend of the TCR Europe series season in Barcelona.

Magnus was one of a number of drivers who would leave it late in the session to post their quickest times, vaulting to the head of the timesheets as the chequered flag was being prepared.

For much of the session, it had looked like the Peugeot 308TCR of Jimmy Clairet would emerge as the car to beat before a flurry of late laps saw him demoted down to fifth spot.

Santiago Urrutia was the first man to jump ahead of the Frenchman in his WRT-run Audi RS 3 LMS but he was almost immediately then beaten by Magnus as he put his Comtoyou Racing-run car quickest with a time of 1:54.640.

That would ultimately prove to be good enough to hold on to the top spot as drivers completed their final laps, with Urrutia having to settle for second.

Behind the Audi duo, Gianni Morbidelli was quickest of the Volkswagen drivers in third, going just 0.063s quicker than Dan Lloyd’s Honda Civic Type R TCR.

Jimmy Clairet finished just ahead of Teddy Clairet in their Peugeots, with the topo ten completed by Julien Briché, Maxime Potty, Nelson Panciatici and Andreas Bäckman.

Having replaced Davit Kajaia at PCR Sport, John Filippi was just outside the top ten in eleventh spot, with the man replacing him at Vuković Motorsport – Clio Cup UK front-runner Jack Young – down in 19th place at the wheel of the only Renault in the field.

Josh Files, who could wrap up the championship title this weekend if results go his way, failed to set a timed lap in the session due to transponder issues, with Luca Engstler – his closest rival in the standings – well down the order in 29th after he completed just six laps.

Second free practice is scheduled for 18:05 CET.