Néstor Girolami sets the pace in opening Zolder free practice
Münnich Motorsport Honda’s Néstor Girolami led the way in the first official WTCR free practice session of 2020, topping the charts at Zolder on Friday afternoon.
Girolami headed the FP1 times for most of the session, quickly working his way down to a 1:36.450 that remained unbeaten throughout.
The Argentinian’s countryman and team-mate Esteban Guerrieri was third to complete a strong session for Honda, particularly with Guerrieri having to overcome the issues that plagued him throughout Thursday’s official test day.
The two Honda drivers sandwiched the impressive Gilles Magnus, the WTCR rookie racing on home soil this weekend for native Audi team Comtoyou Racing. The Belgian driver/team combination got off to a strong start in P2, just over a tenth behind Girolami.
The remaining two Comtoyou Audis of Nathanaël Berthon and Tom Coronel also featured near the top in P4 and P6 respectively, split by world touring car legend Yvan Muller in P5 for Lynk & Co Cyan Racing.
Attila Tassi, who tactfully lent his own Honda Civic Type R TCR to Guerrieri for portions of yesterday’s test in a bid to offset the latter’s lack of track time, was seventh fastest.
Team Mulsanne’s Jean-Karl Vernay followed up his pace-setting performance of yesterday with P8 in practice, with Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing) and Tiago Monteiro (Münnich Motorsport Honda) rounding out the top ten.
Hyundai continued to run in the midfield, with reigning champion Norbert Michelisz restricted to 11th and Nicky Catsburg taking 12th. The duo wound up roughly half a second off Girolami’s pace in another closely contested session.
WTCR action resumes at Zolder on Saturday, with another practice session at 09.50 CEST followed by the all-revealing first qualifying tussle of the year at 14.00 CEST.
