Viktor Andersson and Victor Weyrich heads Paul Ricard free practice

Viktor Andersson and Victor Weyrich topped the first two free practice sessions of the TCR Europe race weekend at Paul Ricard in France.

Swedish driver Andersson (Cupra) set a fastest lap time of 2:11.738 in the first session, beating PMA Motorsport driver Nicola Baldan (Audi) by more than four tenths of a second.

The Herrero Racing duo of Weyrich and Matéo Herrero, with the latter stopping on track due to a technical issue with ten minutes left of the session, claimed positions three and four.

Andersson’s Monlau Motorsport team-mate Adam Shepherd was fifth fastest ahead of the lead Hyundai driver in the form of Junui Park, 1.3 seconds from the top time in sixth place.

Points leader Mike Halder put his ALM Motorsport-prepared Honda in seventh place, 1.496 seconds from Andersson.

The second session saw Weyrich emerging on top with a best lap time of 2:11.591, beating Hyundai driver Gabriele Covini by just 35 thousands of a second.

And the session was close at the top, with Baldan was just a further 0.002 seconds behind in third place and Halder and Alex Ley 0.143 and 0.145 seconds behind respectively in positions three and four.

Junui Park was once again sixth fastest while Felipe Ferndández (Honda) and Nicolas Taylor (Audi) rounded off the top eight.

Next up is qualifying for the TCR Europe field, starting at 09:00 CEST on Saturday.