Photo: Honda Racing Media

Norbert Michelisz just ahead of Yvan Muller in Vila Real test session

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Honda driver Norbert Michelisz was fastest of all in the first test session at the Vila Real circuit, finishing just under a tenth of a second ahead of Yvan Muller’s Citroën, with the fight for the top close between the ballast-laden French and Japanese marques.

Michelisz set the early pace in the session in his Civic WTCC, with team-mate Rob Huff just a few tenths of a second behind at the re-profiled Portuguese street circuit at the ten-minute mark, with their times improving lap-by-lap.

Then championship leader José María López produced a time of 1:59.960 on his first flying lap to go fastest by over a second. The Citroën driver would not set any more flying runs in the 30-minute session, with his only time still good enough for fourth at the end of the session.

Yvan Muller went faster than his Citroën team-mate with ten minutes to go, setting a time of 1:59.860, exactly a tenth faster, before the Hondas surged forward, with first Rob Huff going quickest ahead of Michelisz, before the Hungarian produced a time of 1:58.673 to end up fastest of all just after the chequered flag was waved.

Yvan Muller made a final improvement to jump up to second fastest, just under a tenth behind the Hungarian, with Huff third just two-tenths further behind, the only other driver within a second.

Hugo Valente was the fastest of the Lada drivers, with the Russian manufacturer carrying 70kg of compensation weight for the first time in their WTCC history thanks to their pace two weeks ago at the Moscow Raceway. The Frenchman was just ahead of team-mate and Moscow main race winner Nicky Catsburg.

Tom Chilton was the fastest of the privateer drivers, putting the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën seventh, with home hero Tiago Monteiro eighth fastest for Honda.

Thed Björk was the fastest of the two Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo drivers in ninth, with new team-mate Robert Dahlgren 14th quickest, while Tom Coronel was the best-placed of the Chevrolets in tenth.

17 cars took to the circuit, but an 18th is due on track tomorrow, with Zengő Motorsport installing a new engine into their second Honda Civic for Daniel Nagy, who will make his WTCC debut this weekend.

The WTCC’s next track activity is Free Practice 1 at 09:00 WEST on Saturday.