Practice report
WTCC Paul Ricard
Paul Ricard WTCC: Bjork puts Volvo on top in final practice
Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Bjork put his Volvo S60 on top of the timesheet in the final practice session of the World Touring Car Championship at Paul Ricard.
Edited: Apr 2, 2016, 12:45 PM
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The Swede finished ahead of Tiago Monteiro's Honda and the Lada of Nicky Catsburg, with the best-placed Citroen that of Yvan Muller in fifth.
Bjork jumped to the fore half-way through the 30-minute session, the first time the track has been dry for the WTCC this weekend, with any damp patches cleared up by the preceding European F3 race.
Very few drivers attempted qualifying runs as is usually typical in the final half of the session, with Honda instead opting to rehearse the new MAC3 time trial system with their drivers, which follows after qualifying this afternoon.
With no improvements late in the session, Bjork’s time of 1m30.069s stood to the end of the session, with Honda’s Monteiro his closest rival, after the Portuguese driver had finished fastest in the earlier session which was held in wet conditions.
The fastest of the Citroens, all carrying 80kg of compensation weight this weekend was Muller ahead of reigning champion Jose Maria Lopez.
The best placed of the Chevrolet drivers was Tom Coronel in ninth, who was also the fastest independent driver with Volvo's Fredrick Ekblom seventh.
Honda's Norbert Michelisz finished eighth while Sebastian Loeb Racing's Tom Chilton completed the top 10.
FP2 Results:
**Pos.** **Driver** **Car** **Time** **Gap** 1  Thed Bjork Volvo 1'30.069 2  Tiago Monteiro Honda 1'30.417 0.348 3  Nicky Catsburg Lada 1'30.420 0.351 4  Gabriele Tarquini Lada 1'30.515 0.446 5  Yvan Muller Citroen 1'30.531 0.462 6  Jose Maria Lopez Citroen 1'30.787 0.718 7  Fredrik Ekblom Volvo 1'30.945 0.876 8  Norbert Michelisz Honda 1'30.976 0.907 9  Tom Coronel Chevrolet 1'31.021 0.952 10  Tom Chilton Citroen 1'31.222 1.153 11  Mehdi Bennani Citroen 1'31.255 1.186 12  Rob Huff Honda 1'31.307 1.238 13  John Filippi Chevrolet 1'31.533 1.464 14  Rene Munnich Chevrolet 1'31.723 1.654 15  Hugo Valente Lada 1'31.731 1.662 16  Gregoire Demoustier Citroen 1'31.781 1.712 17  Ferenc Ficza Honda 1'38.551 8.482
Neil Hudson/ TouringCarTimes
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