Franco Girolami led the way in the first practice session at the Salzburgring in his Monlau Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR, setting a best time of 1:33.709 just over halfway through the session, leading his Argentinian rival Ignacio Montenegro’s Honda by just four-thousandths of a second.

Girolami’s pace was nine seconds away from his ultimate pace achieved in Friday’s open test day, which started wet but dried out through the afternoon, with the conditions set to be very wet and challenging for the drivers throughout the rest of today.

Girolami’s title rival Aurélien Comte was third fastest, just under three-tenths of a second down in his SP Compétition CUPRA, with Viktor Andersson fourth fastest in his MA:GP Lynk & Co, with Santiago Concepción fifth fastest and the best-placed of the GOAT Racing Honda trio.

The best of the Diamond Trophy contenders was Felipe Fernández, who was seventh fastest overall.

The top nine drivers were all within a second of Girolami’s time despite the tricky conditions.

The second and final practice session gets underway at 15:00 CEST.