Nicolas Taylor quickest in opening TCR Europe practice at Spa

PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor topped the opening TCR Europe Series practice session of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, ending up over half a second clear of points leader Alex Ley.

The Audi RS 3 LMS driver set a best time of 2m28.601 to end the session 0.570s clear of his Hyundai Elantra N TCR rival, with Nicola Baldan completing the top three in his Audi, a further tenth back.

Some two months after the opening round of the year at Mugello, the TCR Europe field reconvened at the Belgian circuit with many of the drivers having contested the inaugural TCR Europe Cup endurance round at the same venue in April.

Taylor, who finished eighth in the first race that weekend, was quickly on the pace in practice, setting an initial benchmark of 2m28.871, some three-tenths of a second faster than Ley.

Ley did not improve for the remainder of the session, but Taylor found a further two-tenths in the closing minutes to cement his place at the top of the table.

Having languished outside of the top 10 for much of the session, Marco Butti (Monlau Motorsport Cupra León VZ TCR) found time in the final stages, setting the fourth-quickest time behind Baldan, and was the last driver under a second adrift of Taylor.

Mike Halder completed the top five in his ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R, one place ahead of Santiago Concepción, who won the second TCR Europe Cup race last month.

A number of cars did not set a competitive time during the session, most notably TCR Europe Series returnee Stian Paulsen in his Audi RS 3 LMS.

Max Hart was seventh fastest, ahead of Viktor Andersson and Gabriele Covini, with Michael Markussen completing the top 10 after twice having his lap-time deleted for track limits abuse.

Despite ending up 13th quickest, it was a promising session for Adam Shepherd, who had posted top five times before also losing them to track limits violations.

The second free practice session is scheduled to take place later on today at 16:50 CEST.