Josh Files, driving a Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N, was fastest in the second one-hour test session ahead of the weekend’s first TCR Europe races of the season. Jack Young was second quickest in a Halder Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R while it was the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS II of Franco Girolami that set the third fastest time.

It was Files’ teammate Nicola Baldan who was the quickest after the first ten minutes of the session, with Tom Coronel, Baldan again and finally Files taking it in turns to set the quickest time. Young went P2 with less than ten minutes of the session remaining and Girolami then went P3 in the closing minutes. The top twelve cars were covered by a little over eight tenths.

Volcano Motorsport had a mixed session. After being fastest in yesterday’s test, Isidro Callejas set the fifth fastest time and the car was sporting a temporary bodywork repair after the right-hand front wing came loose. Not so fortunate was his teammate Gustavo Moura Jr, who only completed one lap before heading into the pits with a water leak, possibly caused by damage from a flapping front splitter.

In all, nineteen cars took part in the session, with Evgenii Leonov not due to arrive at the circuit until later today and Élite Motorsport announcing on social media before the test that they will now only be running a single car this weekend. The team’s second Audi, for Swiss driver Miklas Born, is now expected to make its debut at Le Castellet in three weeks’ time.

TCR Europe Test Session 2

1. Josh Files (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)   1:52.419

2. Jack Young (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type-R)   1:52.498

3. Franco Girolami (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II)   1:52.532

4. Felice Jelmini (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)   1:52.682

5. Isidro Callejas (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)   1:52.796

6. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II)   1:52.808

Josh Files (fastest): “We had a decent testing programme over the winter, but now we’re all running together and everyone took new tyres then, so we can see the real pace and it’s good to see that we’re in the mix. We still have some things to work through on the car because I’m still not happy with the balance in some areas, but overall on the new tyres I think it came together quite well. Compared to yesterday, some grip has gone down and we can brake later and the traction is better so I guess the DTM cars must have laid down some serious rubber for us last night. In turn, it’s changed the balance of the car quite a lot because of it; we made a lot of big changes overnight and all the rubber put down has counteracted what we did.”

Tomorrow sees TCR Europe start its traditional race weekend format, with Free Practice 1 at 12.05 local time (13.05 CEST) and FP2 at 15.30.