WTCR star Nestor Girolami dominated the two practice sessions ahead of his TCR Australia cameo at Sandown.
The factory Honda driver set out his stall in the opening 30-minute session, a 1m15.666s putting him eight-tenths clear of runaway points leader Will Brown.
In the second session the Argentine picked up where he left off in the first, pulling more than a second clear of the field with a 1m15.841s inside the first 10 minutes.
At the midway point in the session he dipped below his Practice 1 benchmark for the first time with a 1m15.659s.
Girolami then landed the hammer blow with a little over 10 minutes to go, a 1m14.163s leaving him 1.4s up as Friday action came to a close.
A last-minute Liam McAdam lap gave him the second-best time of the day, the MPC Audi driver having been just 11th quickest in the first session.
Brown (HMO Hyundai) finished up third fastest, two tenths behind McAdam, followed by John Martin (Wall Honda) who improved from eighth in Practice 1.
Brown’s closest title contender Dylan O’Keeffe had a quiet opening day, the ASM Alfa driver sixth quickest in P1 and 10th in P2.
Qualifying kicks off at 10:15am local time tomorrow.
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Results – Practice 1
| Pos | # | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 38 | Nestor Girolami (ARG) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:15.6664 | |
| 2 | 30 | William Brown (Qld) | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30N | 1:16.5564 | 00.8900 |
| 3 | 50 | Tony D’Alberto (Vic) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:16.7969 | 01.1305 |
| 4 | 11 | Nathan Morcom (NSW) | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30N | 1:17.1506 | 01.4842 |
| 5 | 7 | Jordan Cox (NSW) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 1:17.1512 | 01.4848 |
| 6 | 9 | Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic) | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 1:17.1635 | 01.4971 |
| 7 | 100 | Russell Ingall (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:17.4295 | 01.7631 |
| 8 | 24 | John Martin (NSW) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:17.6111 | 01.9447 |
| 9 | 33 | Chris Pither (NZ) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Megane RS | 1:17.9094 | 02.2430 |
| 10 | 777 | Andre Heimgartner (NZ) | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra | 1:18.0193 | 02.3529 |
| 11 | 97 | Liam McAdam (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:18.3421 | 02.6757 |
| 12 | 8 | Jason Bright (Vic) | Taskforce/Melb Performance Cnt | Volkswagon Golf GTI | 1:18.4580 | 02.7916 |
| 13 | 62 | Bryce Fullwood (NT) | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra | 1:18.5358 | 02.8694 |
| 14 | 2 | Aaron Cameron (Vic) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Volkswagen Golf GTI | 1:18.6748 | 03.0084 |
| 15 | 3 | Garth Tander (Vic) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:18.9203 | 03.2539 |
| 16 | 34 | James Moffat (Vic) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Megane RS | 1:18.9851 | 03.3187 |
| 17 | 35 | Alexandra Whitley (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Volkswagon Golf GTI | 1:21.8506 | 06.1842 |
Results – Practice 2:
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Car | Lap | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 38 | Nestor Girolami (ARG) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:14.1631 | |
| 2 | 97 | Liam McAdam (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:15.6113 | 01.4482 |
| 3 | 24 | John Martin (NSW) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:15.6686 | 01.5055 |
| 4 | 30 | William Brown (Qld) | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30N | 1:15.8172 | 01.6541 |
| 5 | 777 | Andre Heimgartner (NZ) | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra | 1:16.1090 | 01.9459 |
| 6 | 50 | Tony D’Alberto (Vic) | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1:16.1236 | 01.9605 |
| 7 | 100 | Russell Ingall (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:16.1416 | 01.9785 |
| 8 | 62 | Bryce Fullwood (NT) | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra | 1:16.1935 | 02.0304 |
| 9 | 3 | Garth Tander (Vic) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS 3 | 1:16.4175 | 02.2544 |
| 10 | 8 | Jason Bright (Vic) | Taskforce/Melb Performance Cnt | Volkswagon Golf GTI | 1:16.6175 | 02.4544 |
| 11 | 9 | Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic) | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 1:16.6387 | 02.4756 |
| 12 | 34 | James Moffat (Vic) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Megane RS | 1:16.6712 | 02.5081 |
| 13 | 11 | Nathan Morcom (NSW) | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30N | 1:17.0852 | 02.9221 |
| 14 | 33 | Chris Pither (NZ) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Megane RS | 1:17.2324 | 03.0693 |
| 15 | 2 | Aaron Cameron (Vic) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Volkswagen Golf GTI | 1:17.6857 | 03.5226 |
| 16 | 35 | Alexandra Whitley (Qld) | Melbourne Performance Centre | Volkswagon Golf GTI | 1:19.8405 | 05.6774 |
| 17 | 7 | Jordan Cox (NSW) | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 1:20.5523 | 06.3892 |
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