Fredrik Ekblom leads Volvo 1-2 in Slovakia
Fredrik Ekblom set the pace at Slovakiaring in the first free practice session. The Polestar Cyan Racing driver came home ahead of team-mate Thed Bjork, with Lada’s Nicky Catsburg third in the Vesta TC1.
The session was quite smooth, with only a lap time disallowed for Honda’s Norbert Michelisz and two for Lada’s Hugo Valente, both for track limits infringements. The Lada driver had actually jumped up to second before the stewards decided he had gone too wide at Turn 9.
When the chequered flag was already out Nicky Catsburg stopped on track at Turn 9 and triggered a yellow flag.
Just behind the top three was Gabriele Tarquini, who had set the pace yesterday and confirmed Lada’s strong form. Michelisz finished fifth ahead of team-mates Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro in the order. Hugo Valente finished eighth, with championship leader José María López just behind him after a series of runs on used tyres in his Citroën.
Tom Coronel set the pace in the indendents’ classification with tenth outright in his ROAL Chevroet, followed closely by Campos Chevrolet driver John Filippi, with Citroën’s Yvan Muller 12th after running on old tyres as his team-mate.
WTCC returnee James Thompson massively improved on yesterday’s pace and finished behind Muller in his Muennich Motorsport Chevrolet, now six tenths off the leading Chevrolet of Tom Coronel’s pace.
Action resumes at 11.30 for Free Practice 2.
