Timerzyanov flies as Foust stumbles

Last weekend Timur Timerzyanov ended timed practice in an unspeakable rage, a puncture leaving him with a slow time and on the back foot. This week Timerzyanov has sailed through the first real test of the weekend, the Citroën driver setting fastest time, 0.4s ahead of Mats Lysen with Liam Doran third fastest. At the bottom of the order, Tanner Foust did not even make it to the starting line in the timed session, the American’s Fiesta zipped up in the OMSE awning where the engine is on the floor and the team working flat out to get a replacement into the car before the first heat. If there are no unexpected hitches, they have enough time to complete the task. While practice was running, Foust walked away to a quiet corner of the paddock to watch his rivals and gather his thoughts ahead of the first heat in which he will face the beginning of a thankless task; no matter how good his run in the heats he starts know that he will knocked back eight places int the qualifying order, so even if he is able to snatch pole, the very best he can hope for is the front row of the B final…

All other Supercar drivers and all of the runners in Super1600 made it through practice, Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme setting the pace and chased by Krzysztof Skorupski who breathed a sigh of relief that the engine in his VW Polo has survived the boiling it received last weekend.

Derek Tohill was also happy that his engine worries from Belgium appear to be over, the Irishman fastest in TouringCar ahead of Anton Marklund and Koen Pauwels. Roman Castoral missed the session after an engine problem in the first free practice halted his Opel, the Czech driver now trying to resolve a cylinder head problem but also facing an eight place penalty on his qualifying position. Nick Snoeys also failed to make it to the grid for timed practice.

Reliability was notably good in JRX where all four drivers set a time, Firmin Cadeddu the fastest.

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