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Practice report

Thailand WTCC: Chilton beats the Hondas to top FP2

Tom Chilton was the surprise pacesetter in the second WTCC practice session at Buriram, Thailand, ahead of the Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz.

Tom Chilton, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, ROAL Motorsport

Tom Chilton, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, ROAL Motorsport

FIA WTCC

The session started as the previous one had finished, with Jose Maria Lopez leading for Citroen, although midway through the session Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente came very close to taking the top spot.

It was at that time that championship leader Lopez further improved his lap time and looked unstoppable.

However, during the last runs, things completely changed, with a wave of independents taking the lead starting with Mehdi Bennani, who was soon passed by Michelisz and eventual pace-setter Chilton.

As the session ended, Tarquini jumped up to second ahead of Michelisz, with Tiago Monteiro showing good pace in his Honda Civic in fourth.

Bennani came fifth ahead of Valente, once again the fastest Chevrolet runner, albeit this time as little as 0.005s quicker than fellow Campos Racing driver John Filippi.

Lopez slipped down to eighth, with Citroen teammate Sebastien Loeb in ninth and Gregoire Demoustier completing the top 10.

Rob Huff finished 12th, although this time he was the quickest Lada driver, with Yvan Muller continuing his struggles by finishing just behind the Brit.

Nicolas Lapierre made it to the track for three laps as the Lada team did a very good job in repairing the car from the Frenchman’s earlier crash, which was caused by a suspension failure.

Again, a number of drivers were warned or disallowed lap times due to track limits, with Nicky Catsburg and Tin Sritrai among the drivers awarded a penalty.

Practice results:

Pos. Driver Car Time Gap
 Tom Chilton Chevrolet 1'38.881  
 Gabriele Tarquini Honda 1'38.959 0.078
 Norbert Michelisz Honda 1'39.013 0.132
 Tiago Monteiro Honda 1'39.058 0.177
 Mehdi Bennani Citroen 1'39.249 0.368
 Hugo Valente Chevrolet 1'39.341 0.460
 John Filippi Chevrolet 1'39.346 0.465
 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen 1'39.398 0.517
 Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1'39.463 0.582
10   Gregoire Demoustier Chevrolet 1'39.523 0.642
11   Ma Qing Hua Citroen 1'39.682 0.801
12   Rob Huff Lada 1'39.761 0.880
13   Yvan Muller Citroen 1'39.975 1.094
14   Nicolas Lapierre Lada 1'39.990 1.109
15   Nicky Catsburg Lada 1'40.135 1.254
16   Stefano D'Aste Chevrolet 1'40.147 1.266
17   Tom Coronel Chevrolet 1'40.183 1.302
18   Tin Sritrai Chevrolet 1'40.712 1.831

Pietro Casillo/TouringCarTimes

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