Target’s Nicola Baldan tops TCR Europe’s first practice at Nürburgring
Target Competition’s Nicolas Baldan set the pace in his Hyundai Elantra N TCR in TCR Europe’s first practice at the Nürburgring.
Unlike in 2021 when the full Grand Prix layout was raced on by the series, this weekend the shorter 3.629-kilometre Sprint layout that shortens the first sector but does include the famous Mercedes arena section is being used.
Although the morning practice started off cool and cloudy, the track temperature rose through the half-hour session and meant many drivers had to make car adjustments to accommodate for the rising temperatures.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi was the first to set a flying lap, laying down an early 1:38’833 benchmark. Maťo Homola was then the first driver to set a sub-1:38 and then a sub-1:37 pace, as one of few drivers to commit to getting flying laps in early rather than getting a feel of the track and then pitting straight after.
Baldan went to the top of the times with a 1:36.2 lap just before the strategy changed for many and the track became busy with cars on actual runs rather than installation laps. Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov and Target’s Felice Jelmini each briefly occupied first place as they ventured into 1:35 territory, then at the 10-minute mark Gavrilov’s team-mate Isidro Callejas rocketed to first place in his Cupra León Competición as he posted a 1:35.478 effort.
Points leader Franco Girolami, who had been running off the pace prior to that, then showed the potential of the Audi RS 3 LMS package around the Nürburgring as he went two tenths of a second faster than Callejas, but Gavrilov crossed the line seconds later with a 1:35.067 that made him the fastest.
Next to top the times was Halder Motorsport’ Jack Young, with the Briton breaking into the 1:34s and then – feeling satisfied with the pace of his Honda Civic Type R TCR – returning to the pits, getting out of the car and watching the rest of the session from the pit wall.
His benchmark lap time stood until the final five minutes as Baldan set his session-topping 1:34.689 on a set of brand new tyres. He ran for a few more laps after that but could not find any more pace, while Comtoyou Racing’s Girolami returned to track for a late run and managed to go second fastest, 0.063 seconds slower than Baldan.
Young was shuffled to fourth as Janik Motorsport’s Jáchym Galás went just a hundredth of a second slower than Girolami after the chequered flag to take third place on the timesheet. Jelmini made it three Hyundais in the top five in fifth place, then Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel, Gavrilov, Homola, Target’s Josh Files and Comtoyou’s Viktor Davidovski filled out a top 10 covered by little over half a second on pace.
Files’ car stopped running while on track at the end of the session, but he managed to bring the car back to the pits without the assistance of a recovery vehicle.
Comtoyou’s Viktor Davidovski and Volcano’s Evgeny Leonov both had faulty transponders that meant their laps were not shown during the session, but the teams told TouringCarTimes of their respective best efforts, with Leonov the slowest of all by seven tenths of a second.
The second practice starts at 16:40 local time (CET).
