Moscow WTCC: Monteiro leads Honda 1-2-3 in Friday test

The Portuguese set a best time of 1m38.523s in his Honda and was followed by teammates Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff, with the 2012 champion 0.398 seconds off the pace.

Nicky Catsburg defended the Lada corner at home in fourth position, lapping with his Vesta WTCC 0.472 seconds off the pace.

Volvo Polestar driver Thed Bjork was next in the classification at the wheel of the S60 TC1, a further 0.170 seconds behind, with Hugo Valente in at sixth for Lada Sport.

Reigning champion and standings leader Jose Maria Lopez followed in seventh position, being also the fastest of the Citroen C-Elysee WTCC cars, 0.725 seconds off the pace and just one thousandth behind Valente.

Volvo Polestar’s Fredrik Ekblom was eighth, with Mehdi Bennani ending up the fastest of the WTCC Trophy participants in his SLR Citroen. The Moroccan was 0.848 seconds behind Monteiro.

Campos Racing driver John Filippi completed the top 10, being the best of the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s on track, 0.869 seconds off the pace.

Bennani’s teammate Tom Chilton was next in the classification, 0.985 seconds behind Monteiro. The Briton has been nominated by Citroen to complete the MAC3 trio for tomorrow’s post-qualifying session.

James Thompson, who is on duty for Munnich Motorsport for the third time this season, was 15th-fastest, 2.105 seconds off the pace.

The session was completed in dry weather conditions and was largely trouble-free, with all 17 entrants this weekend taking to the track.

FP0 results:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	1:38.523	13
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda	1:38.828	13
3	Rob Huff	Honda	1:38.921	13
4	Nicky Catsburg	Lada	1:38.995	13
5	Thed Björk	Volvo	1:39.165	11
6	Hugo Valente	Lada	1:39.247	12
7	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen	1:39.248	11
8	Fredrik Ekblom	Volvo	1:39.284	11
9	Mehdi Bennani	Citroen	1:39.371	14
10	John Filippi	Chevrolet	1:39.392	12
11	Tom Chilton	Citroen	1:39.508	13
12	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	1:39.819	12
13	Gabriele Tarquini	Lada	1:39.890	12
14	Yvan Muller	Citroen	1:39.890	9
15	James Thompson	Chevrolet	1:40.628	13
16	Grégoire Demoustier	Citroen	1:41.256	13
17	Ferenc Ficza	Honda	1:41.411	13