Nicola Baldan and Nicolas Taylor led the way in the final practice session at Monza, however the two PMA Motorsport Audis were just one-tenth of a second ahead of the CUPRA of SP Compétition’s Mikhail Simonov.

Baldan, Taylor, and Simonov were also the first drivers to ever go under 1:54 in a TCR car around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, with Baldan setting a time of 1:53.743, just 0.087 seconds ahead of his team-mate Taylor.

Simonov’s time of 1:53.864 meant the CUPRA driver was hot on the tail of the two Audi drivers, while behind Simonov was the leading Monlau Motorsport CUPRA of Adam Shepherd, the British racer showing renewed pace after the recent successful test in Barcelona last week.

Mike Halder was the fastest of the ALM Motorsport Hondas in fifth, also within half a second of Baldan’s time, with team-mate Ruben Volt less than a tenth behind.

Alex Ley was the top Hyundai, the BRC Racing Team driver just ahead of the top Tenerife Trophy driver Victor Weyrich, with the Italians Gabriele Covini and Marco Butti completing the top ten.

Teddy Clairet changed his engine after suffering power loss in Free Practice 1, but the French driver only had time for one timed run at the end of the session and was 22nd quickest, just ahead of his Vannin Motorsport team-mate Luke Sargeant.

Mikael Karlsson was the top of the Diamond Trophy contenders in 20th overall in his ALM Motorsport Honda, while Diamond champion-elect Sandro Pelatti was 27th in his repaired PMA CUPRA after an earlier off at Ascari in FP1.

Missing from the session was Max Hart, whose ALM Motorsport Honda was damaged in an off at Biassono in the first session, and the team has been unable to repair the car.

The next session is qualifying, which takes place at 11:55 CEST tomorrow.