Pepe Oriola leads Sepang free practice session

Pepe Oriola was fastest in this morning’s free practice session at Sepang, Malaysia. The Craft-Bamboo driver was a full six-tenths quicker than Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay, while third-placed Gianni Morbidelli was more than one second off the pace in his WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR.

Attila Tassi was a surprising fourth on his debut at Sepang, as the B3 Racing driver did not take part in last year’s event. The Hungarian finished ahead of Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini, who was a couple of tenths faster than championship leader James Nash, in his Lukoil-backed Craft-Bamboo SEAT.

Loris Hezemans started the weekend on a positive note, finishing seventh ahead of WestCoast Racing’s Kevin Gleason. B3 Racing’s Dusan Borkovic and Mat’o Homola completed the top ten. Kevin Tse was fastest in TCR Asia and eleventh outright in his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Andy Yan spun at Turn 1 20 minutes into the session, causing a red flag as the marshals took his Golf out of the gravel. The session was stopped again ten minutes later, as William O’Brien also spun and beached himself in the gravel.

Mikhail Grachev suffered from intercooler problems, but the WestCoast Racing driver was able to rejoin towards the end of the session. Fellow Russian Sergey Afansyev was not as lucky, as his Lukoil-backed SEAT had gearbox problems and only allowed him to complete three slow laps. Rafaël Galiana also suffered from a lack of power in his Honda Civic TCR, while Tin Sritrai had a power steering failure.

Newly-crowned TCR Italy champion Roberto Colciago finished the session in 12th, two places ahead of Mario Ferraris, who makes his debut at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR. Nicky Pastorelli was 18th in the FRD Ford Focus TCR.

Qualifying will start at 8.40 local time tomorrow.