Spa race winner Felipe Fernández set the best-ever lap time in a TCR car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in today’s mid-season test, going under the time set by Honda rival Ruben Volt in qualifying last year.

Though not an official record as it’s an open test, the times seen in the day’s extended test session foreshadowed a fast pair of races coming up over the next month, as the TCR Europe series rushes towards its conclusion first at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 25-27, and then back to Barcelona for the season finale on October 23-25.

The optional test was attended by a limited number of the season's entrants, with the two local teams RC2 Racing Team and Monlau Motorsport joined by the Italian teams BRC Racing Team and PMA Motorsport.

Fernández’s best time, a 1:48.754, was just 95 thousandths of a second quicker than Gabriele Covini’s Hyundai.

Adam Shepherd, fresh from his spell of races back in TCR UK, completed the most laps of any driver during the test, with 94 over the course of the day. He also set the third-fastest time, in the low 1:49s.

In total, 614 laps were run around the circuit during the combined test, which took place alongside the 24HSERIES.