Julien Briché quickest in opening practice at Spa

JSB Compétition Peugeot driver Julien Briché set the fastest time in the opening free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, while the Hyundais struggled.

The Frenchman, who has two victories to his name already this season, set a time of 2:31.007, beating Santiago Urrutia’s Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS by over four-tenths of a second.

Aurélien Comte was third fastest for DG Compétition as Peugeot ended the session with three cars inside the top ten.

Points leader Josh Files was the best of the Hyundais in eighth, a fraction shy of a second slower than Briché; the i30 N TCR arriving at Spa as the heaviest car for the second round in a row.

Comte was the first driver to set a representative time at the start of the session with a 2:31.556, three-tenths quicker than the other Peugeot 308TCR of Teddy Clairet.

Files briefly held third spot but was soon overhauled by Gilles Magnus’ Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS.

Briché then went top with his quickest time of 2m31.007 which was not to be beaten for the remainder of the session.

Behind Comte, Gianni Morbidelli posted the fourth fastest time in his WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, ahead of Magnus and Davit Kajaia’s Cupra.

Morbidelli’s WestCoast team-mate Olli Kangas was ninth, with Stian Paulsen rounding out the top ten in his Cupra.