Junesung Park led the way in the first free practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The South Korean was the only driver under the 1:49 barrier at the scene where he scored his TCR Europe victory at the end of last year, setting his best time just at the halfway point of the session.

At the final moment, Felipe Fernández went second fastest just over a tenth of a second down on Park’s time, while Fernández’s RC2 Racing Team team-mate Victor Chan was just behind him in third in an impressive run for the Hong Kong driver.

Mike Halder was fourth quickest in his ALM Motorsport Honda, with three Hondas therefore on the top four, while Viktor Andersson was the quickest of the CUPRAs, just over half a second off the pace.

Championship leader Marco Butti was seventh fastest in his Monlau CUPRA, while his closest title rivals Alex Ley (BRC Racing Team Hyundai) were 16th and Nicolas Taylor (PMA Motorsport Audi) 12th in the 30-minute session.

Track limits were a key talking point of the session, with 23 laps deleted, including four for Butti, and three for Hyundai's Gabriele Covini, newcomer Gary Kwok, and Diamond Trophy frontrunner Victor Fernández.

The second free practice session takes place at 16:08 CEST.