Nicky Catsburg tops Slovakiaring final free practice

Nicky Catsburg was fastest for Lada Sport in the second free practice session of the day at Slovakiaring. The Dutchman came home ahead of Thed Bjork and Fredrik Ekblom after the two Polestar Cyan Racing drivers led most of the session.

The session started with Honda Racing practising MAC3, but the slippery track at Turn 9 meant both Tiago Monteiro and Rob Huff slid wide, with the Brit taking a long trip in the gravel trap but still able to continue.

The Volvos immediately set the pace, as many cars waited for the track to get cleaner before they got out and set a competitive lap time. As a result, it was not until the final minutes of the session that Catsburg set a very good lap time, improving on his own personal best of the weekend by two tenths.

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel also had a slide out of the track and rejoined, as did Norbert Michelisz in his Honda Civic. With just one minute to go, John Filippi, who was massively improving his lap time, outbraked himself and got stuck in the gravel trap, triggering a yellow flag which effectively ended the session.

Catsburg was therefore first ahead of the Cyan Racing duo, with Bjork ahead of Ekblom. Norbert Michelisz came fourth ahead of a stunning James Thompson, who improved by 0.8s compared to his best FP1 lap to claim fifth outright and topping the privateers’ WTCC Trophy.

Hugo Valente was sixth in his Lada Vesta ahead of Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, with an ever-improving Tom Chilton in eighth in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën. Rob Huff came home ninth, with Yvan Muller completing the top ten in the works C-Elysée.

Championship leader José María López went no further than 12th, behind Gabriele Tarquini’s Lada Vesta. Tom Coronel also slipped down to 15th after a top ten finish in this morning’s session.

Next up for the WTCC is Qualifying at 14.00, which will be followed by MAC 3 at 15.00.