TCR Australia: WTCR star Girolami dominates practice

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.

Watch all the Sandown TCR Australia action live and free from anywhere in the world thanks to Motorsport.tv.

Results – Practice 1

Pos#DriverTeamCarTimeGap
1  38Nestor Girolami (ARG)  Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:15.6664 
2  30William Brown (Qld)    HMO Customer Racing           Hyundai i30N        1:16.556400.8900
3  50Tony D’Alberto (Vic)   Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:16.796901.1305
4  11Nathan Morcom (NSW)    HMO Customer Racing           Hyundai i30N        1:17.150601.4842
5   7Jordan Cox (NSW)       Garry Rogers Motorsport       Alfa Romeo Giulietta1:17.151201.4848
6   9Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic)   Ashley Seward Motorsport      Alfa Romeo Giulietta1:17.163501.4971
7 100Russell Ingall (Qld)   Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:17.429501.7631
8  24John Martin (NSW)      Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:17.611101.9447
9  33Chris Pither (NZ)      Garry Rogers Motorsport       Renault Megane RS   1:17.909402.2430
10777Andre Heimgartner (NZ) Kelly Racing                  Holden Astra        1:18.019302.3529
11 97Liam McAdam (Qld)      Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:18.342102.6757
12  8Jason Bright (Vic)     Taskforce/Melb Performance CntVolkswagon Golf GTI 1:18.458002.7916
13 62Bryce Fullwood (NT)    Kelly Racing                  Holden Astra        1:18.535802.8694
14  2Aaron Cameron (Vic)    Melbourne Performance Centre  Volkswagen Golf GTI 1:18.674803.0084
15  3Garth Tander (Vic)     Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:18.920303.2539
16 34James Moffat (Vic)     Garry Rogers Motorsport       Renault Megane RS   1:18.985103.3187
17 35Alexandra Whitley (Qld)Melbourne Performance Centre  Volkswagon Golf GTI 1:21.850606.1842

Results – Practice 2:

PosNumDriverTeamCarLapGap
1  38Nestor Girolami (ARG)  Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:14.1631 
2  97Liam McAdam (Qld)      Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:15.611301.4482
3  24John Martin (NSW)      Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:15.668601.5055
4  30William Brown (Qld)    HMO Customer Racing           Hyundai i30N        1:15.817201.6541
5 777Andre Heimgartner (NZ) Kelly Racing                  Holden Astra        1:16.109001.9459
6  50Tony D’Alberto (Vic)   Wall Racing                   Honda Civic Type R  1:16.123601.9605
7 100Russell Ingall (Qld)   Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:16.141601.9785
8  62Bryce Fullwood (NT)    Kelly Racing                  Holden Astra        1:16.193502.0304
9   3Garth Tander (Vic)     Melbourne Performance Centre  Audi RS 3           1:16.417502.2544
10  8Jason Bright (Vic)     Taskforce/Melb Performance CntVolkswagon Golf GTI 1:16.617502.4544
11  9Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic)   Ashley Seward Motorsport      Alfa Romeo Giulietta1:16.638702.4756
12 34James Moffat (Vic)     Garry Rogers Motorsport       Renault Megane RS   1:16.671202.5081
13 11Nathan Morcom (NSW)    HMO Customer Racing           Hyundai i30N        1:17.085202.9221
14 33Chris Pither (NZ)      Garry Rogers Motorsport       Renault Megane RS   1:17.232403.0693
15  2Aaron Cameron (Vic)    Melbourne Performance Centre  Volkswagen Golf GTI 1:17.685703.5226
16 35Alexandra Whitley (Qld)Melbourne Performance Centre  Volkswagon Golf GTI 1:19.840505.6774
17  7Jordan Cox (NSW)       Garry Rogers Motorsport       Alfa Romeo Giulietta1:20.552306.3892

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