The 2025 TCR European Endurance season is officially underway: the first free practice session of the year is now in the books, as the drivers hit the ground running around the historic Mugello Circuit, theatre of the opening round of the series promoted by Mauricio Slaviero. At the end of the 60-minute session, it was the Wimmer Werk Motorsport pair of Scalvini/Tavano (Cupra Leon Competicion) who set the fastest time of the day with a 1:57.938. The #6 Cupra was the quickest car right from the beginning, staying at the top of the standings throughout the entire duration of FP1.
The first practice session ran rather smoothly, except for a brief red flag period after the opening 10 minutes; this was caused by the VW Golf GTI DSG of Cuppari/Verrocchio, as the car slid off the track at Savelli, damaging the car’s front bumper as well as its transponder. After a short interruption, racing resumed under green flag conditions, with Scalvini/Tavano holding the lead up until the end in Wimmer Werk Motorsport’s official debut in the series. Hot on their tail, PMA Motorsport was close behind in second position, with Pelatti/Girolami (Audi RS3 LMS) gradually improving their times throughout the session and ultimately missing out on top spot by only 0.180s. Third was BF Motorsport’s Brigliadori/Alcidi (Audi RS3 LMS), who finished 1.510s off the lead – meaning that the three cars with a sequential gearbox locked out the first three spots.
Wimmer Werk Motorsport was the fastest in the DSG class, too, thanks to the all-Jamaican pair of Issa/Summerbell (Cupra Leon DSG) finishing fourth overall thanks to a 2:01.160, consolidating the Austrian outfit’s impressive debut. Behind them, reigning team’s champions TEXACO Team AMS finished in 5th with Çiftçi/Okyay (Audi RS3 Gen-1), thus bringing a Gen-1 car in the top-5. It was a promising start for Tuder Motorsport: the team rounded out the top-3 in the DSG category, as Damante/Maccari (Audi RS3 DSG) and Alcidi/Giovannoni (VW Golf GTI DSG) finished 6th and 7th overall respectively. The former pair also set the highest number of laps completed with 25. Eighth overall was the other TEXACO Team AMS entry of Kalpaklıoğlu/Özen (Audi RS3 DSG), with Faro Racing closing the top-10. After their early issues, Cuppari/Verrocchio (VW Golf GTI DSG) were able to get back out on track to finish 9th, ahead of their teammate Stefano Moretti (VW Golf GTI DSG) in the sister car.
With Friday’s action now complete, the teams will get another free practice turn, this time of 20 minutes, on Saturday, March 29th at 9:45 local time. Later the same day, the first qualifying session of the year will take place: the two 15-minute sections will start at 13:10 and 13:55 local time respectively. On Sunday, the opening race of 2025 is set to start at 8:45 local time for Stage 1, whereas the green flag for Stage 2 will be waived at 17:25 local time. Both stages will be broadcast live on TCR TV’s official YouTube channel, with commentary provided by Daniele Spadi.
