The TCR European Endurance has officially come to life, as the series promoted by Mauricio Slaviero has now completed at Balaton Park Circuit its first free practice session in the history of the series – sharing the track with TCR Eastern Europe.
On the 4115-meter-long Hungarian track built close to Lake Balaton, the best time was set by M1RA Motorsport’s Attila Bucsi (Hyundai i30N), who topped the session with a 1:44.344 – 0.184s faster than the Audi RS3 of Konukoglu/Brigliadori, with the Turk racing for TEXACO Team AMS leading the standings in the first part of the session.
The third fastest time was a 1:46.299 by Aditis Racing’s Martin Kadlecik (Audi RS3), the Czech driver edging out Zsille Motorsport’s Zoltan Barkovics (Cupra Leon DSG) – who was able to take a third different car brand to the top four spots thanks to a 1:50.370 while being the fastest driver of the DSG class. On the other hand, Barkin Pinar and his TEXACO Team AMS’ Audi RS3 were the fastest among Gen 1 cars. Ibrahim Okyay (Audi RS3 DSG) – TEXACO Team AMS only managed to complete a single lap, as free practice got interrupted with 12 minutes to go thanks to a red flag that effectively declared the end of the session.
Friday’s program sees a second, ever so crucial, free practice session at 12:30, with the first official qualifying at 15:50. The inaugural race of TCR European Endurance’s history is set to start Saturday, April 27th at 12:15, with the hour-long first part setting the grid for Sunday, April 28th, when the race starting at 10:20 will tell us the names of TCR European Endurance’s first winners in the history of the series.
