Nicola Baldan took over as the fastest driver in the first official practice session of the weekend, leading the session ahead of SP Compétition’s Mikhail Simonov who was again the second-fastest driver, with Viktor Andersson third fastest in his Monlau CUPRA.

Baldan set his best time soon after the session resumed following a red flag, after Baldan’s PMA Motorsport team-mate Sandro Pelatti had crashed out at Ascari, sustaining damage to the left side of his CUPRA.

Baldan, running in an Audi RS 3 LMS, set a time of 1:54.738, just a tenth shy of his other team-mate Nicolas Taylor’s time from yesterday’s test, deposing Simonov who had been fastest at that point.

Gabriele Covini was the best-placed of the Hyundais, with the BRC Racing Team driver, running in the new configuration Elantra N EV TCR this weekend, just under half a tenth down on Baldan.

Junesung Park was fifth in his Hyundai ahead of the two Monlau CUPRAs of Adam Shepherd and Marco Butti, with Felipe Fernández eighth, the fastest of the Honda drivers.

Yesterday’s pace-setter Taylor was ninth, with Tiago Pernía’s Squadra Martino Honda rounding out the top ten.

Victor Weyrich was the best-placed of the Tenerife Trophy contenders in 11th, also within a second of Baldan’s time, while the best-placed of the Diamond Trophy drivers was Mikael Karlsson in 15th.

The session ended with a red flag just as it was about to run to time when Max Hart’s ALM Motorsport Honda crashed out at Biassono. Hart and Pelatti’s cars had superficial damage, and the teams have four hours to repair the cars before the final practice session at 17:00 CEST.