Lada’s Nicky Catsburg on top in Moscow Raceway Free Practice 1
Nicky Catsburg was fastest of all in Saturday morning’s first practice session at Lada home race at the Moscow Raceway. The Dutch driver deprived Honda of another top three lock-out at the last minute, with the Japanese marque having to settle for second through fourth, while Citroën struggled in the 30-minute session, with all cars missing the top ten.
Catsburg produced his best time of 1:38.549 with just a minute to go, dropping Norbert Michelisz down to second, with a time almost four-tenths of a second faster than the Honda driver.
Honda continue to show good pace after taking the top three spots in yesterday’s test session, despite running their original flat floor following yesterday’s FIA appeal court ruling. Rob Huff was just 0.075 seconds behind team-mate Michelisz in third, with Tiago Monteiro fourth, 0.042 further behind.
Polestar Cyan Racing put on a strong performance with Thed Björk fifth fastest in the Volvo S60 ahead of Lada drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente, with John Filippi the best-placed of the independent drivers in eighth in his Campos Racing-run Chevrolet Cruze.
All five Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs were well off the pace in the session, with Yvan Muller the fastest for the French manufacturer, which are all still carrying the maximum compensation weight of 80kg. Muller was 12th, 1.4 seconds from Catsburg’s time, with the privateer Citroën of Mehdi Bennani 14th, and championship leader José María López down in 15th with the remaining privateer Citroëns filling out the final positions down to 17th.
The second and final practice session takes place at 11:30 local time (10:30 CET).
