Photo: TCR Europe

John Filippi fastest in first practice for TCR Europe at Paul Ricard

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi was fastest in the first practice session for TCR Europe Series’ second round of 2022 at Paul Ricard.

Filippi was one of many to recieve track limits warnings through the half-hour practice, with Turn 7 and Turn 10 being the two corners where drivers most frequently went wide, and the CUPRA Leon Competición driver was on his final warning when red flags were brought out with just over a minute left on the clock.

The reason given for the stoppage was debris on track, and with too little time for a restart to take place the session was ended early.

Jack Young, in his second weekend with the Halder Motorsport team, was the very first out of the pitlane in practice and also the first lapping at a representative pace as he posted a 2:14.641 straight away in his Honda Civic Type R TCR.

The track was busy from the off, with only CUPRA Leon Competición-driving Team Clairet Sport duo Stéphane Ventaja and Gilles Colombani biding their time before heading out for their first on-track appearance of the year as the team missed the opening round at Portimão.

Brutal Fish Racing Team’s Pepe Oriola was first to usurp Young, setting a 2:14.450 in his Honda Civic Type R TCR on his second flying lap, then Target Competition’s Felice Jelmini bettered him with a 2:14.169 in the Hyundai Elantra N TCR.

That trio of drivers improved their pace but it was Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel who ended the first runs on top, breaking into the 1:13 territory and avoiding racking up track limits warnings.

He improved to 2:13.907 with eight minutes to go, and it looked like that would be enough to stay on top as Young had the pace to improve but was still breaking track limits too often. They were both bettered by Filippi in the final three minutes, as the Frenchman set a 2:13.644 in his CUPRA.

Coronel’s team-mate and points leader Franco Girolami was fourth fastest, while Janik Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola completed the top five and escaped having his final lap being deleted by the red flags coming out.

Josh Files’ laps were not picked up by live timing, but the Target driver was out on track through the session.

The second free practice session is scheduled to take place later on today at 17:32 CEST.