Victor Weyrich topped the one-hour pre-event test at Circuit Paul Ricard, in a session which was hit by heavy rain and then saw a very mixed up order in the final time sheet.

Weyrich excelled in the conditions at his home circuit to go fastest with a time of 2:36.567 in his CUPRA Leon VZ TCR, two-tenths of a second clear of the RC2 Racing Team Honda of Víctor Fernández.

Danish racer Michael Markussen ended the session third fastest, the only other driver within a second of Weyrich’s time.

The session had started under light drizzle but this soon progressed to heavy rain, with the field switching to the Kumho wet tyre for the duration of the test.

Weyrich managed to set his best time even in the wetter conditions, going faster than Monlau Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd who had set the early running when slick tyres were still viable.

Behind the top three, Weyrich’s team-mate and team manager, newcomer Matéo Herrero, was fourth quickest ahead of the best-placed of the Audis, that of PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor.

With no further rain forecast for the rest of the weekend, a number of drivers chose to sit out the test, including both of the ALM Motorsport Hondas of Ruben Volt and points leader Mike Halder, the AIKOA Racing Audi of Santiago Concepción, and the RC2 Racing Team Honda of Felipe Fernández.