SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte has led the first practice session of the TCR Europe series at Vallelunga, with the French driver outpacing the rival CUPRA Leon VZ TCR of returning champion Franco Girolami by just under a tenth of a second.

Comte topped the time sheets with a time of 1:39.975 in the 30-minute session. Closest to the two CUPRAs was new ALM Motorsport driver Ignacio Montenegro, with the Argentinian just over three-tenths off the pace in his Honda Civic Type R FL5.

Returning Dusan Borkovic was fourth quickest in his GOAT Racing-run Honda, with Nicola Baldan fifth fastest in his Audi RS 3 LMS.

The top ten cars were split by just under a second at the 4km circuit.

The second session gets underway at 15:30 CEST