Photo: FIA WTCR

Nathanäel Berthon leads Audi 1-2 in opening practice at Sakhir

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Nathanaël Berthon set the fastest lap time in the first free practice session at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, host of the penultimate FIA WTCR round, leading Comtoyou Racing team-mate Mehdi Bennani.

The two Zengo Motorsport Cupras with drivers Dániel Nagy and Bence Boldizs were left in their pit boxes during the session due to a so far unknown reason. TouringCarTimes has reached out to the team for a statement.

Berthon rose to the top with a lap time of 2:11.616 half-way through the session, with Bennani climbing up to second place during his last attempt, three-tenths off the pace.

BRC Racing Team’s Mikel Azcona (Hyundai Elantra N TCR) also made a last-minute effort to finish in third place, a further 0.038 seconds behind, followed by his team-mate Norbert Michelisz.

Gilles Magnus finished the session in fifth position, four-tenths behind Berthon, with Néstor Girolami as the fastest Honda Civic Type R TCR driver in sixth place, seven-tenths off the pace.

Tom Coronel (Audi RS 3 LMS) was seventh, followed by series returnee Nicky Catsburg (Hyundai) and Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri, a full 1.2 seconds behind Berthon.

Engstler Motorsport’s Tiago Monteiro and Attila Tassi came next, with Comtoyou’s series rookies Franco Girolami and Viktor Davidovski closing the classification, with the Macedonian driver suffering an oil leak issue at the beginning of the session.

The second free practice session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 15:30 local time, 13:30 CET.