Photo: ETCC Media

Manuel Pedro Fernandes fastest again in red flagged ETCC test session

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Speedy Motorsport’s Manuel Pedro Fernandes was fastest in the second test session of the day for the European Touring Car Cup at Vila Real, with the Portuguese wild card driver leading the way in his SEAT León Cup Racer ahead of countryman Fabio Mota, with the session red flagged with five-minutes to go.

Fernandes found more pace from his TCN2 class SEAT from the morning session, despite the rising temperature, setting a best time of 2:07.368 during the 30-minute test.

Fabio Mota in the Lema Racing SEAT León TCR made it a Portuguese 1-2, setting a time just three-tenths of a second slower, while Mota’s team-mate Igor Stefanovski was third fastest, just over a second off the pace.

Norbert Nagy was fourth fastest in the Zengő SEAT León Cup Racer, 1.3 seconds from the ultimate pace of Fernandes, ahead of the Krenek Motorsport SEAT León TCR of Christjohannes Schrieber, completing an all SEAT top five.

Peter Rikli was the best-placed of the Honda Civic TCR drivers in sixth, 2.9 seconds down, with team-mate Kris Richard eighth fastest.

ETCC Super 2000 Trophy points leader Petr Fulín did not take part in the session.

In the Super 1600 class, Kevin Hilgenhovel was fastest of all in his ETH Tuning Peugeot 207 Sport, just ahead of the Ravenel Team Ford Fiesta 1.6 of Ksenya Niks, with just these two drivers opting to take part in the session from the normally aspirated class.

The ETCC’s official Free Practice session is next up and takes place at 9:55 WEST on Saturday.