Photo: Honda Racing Media

Rob Huff pips Norbert Michelisz to lead a Honda 1-2-3 in Portugal FP1

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Rob Huff led an all Honda top three in the first free practice session on Saturday at the Vila Real street circuit, grabbing the top spot from team-mate Norbert Michelisz just after the chequered flag fell.

Honda dominated the bulk of the session, with Michelisz jumping to the fore just before the ten-minute mark, coming within a fraction of José María López’s lap record of last year with a time of 1:58.541.

Huff was then first to break the lap record, which was always set to fall due to the modified chicane this year, setting two consecutive laps in the 1:58.3s before Michelisz found over another second with ten minutes left to go fastest with a time of 1:57.188.

Huff had one last stab right at the end, and the Brit took over at the top of the time sheets with a time of 1:56.907, two-tenths clear of his Hungarian team-mate.

“It was really slippery at the beginning of the session, but the track was getting quicker and quicker every lap,” said Huff.

“The car feels good, we’re still working on the set-up, but we’re happy with (P1),” he added.

Local driver Tiago Monteiro completed an all-Honda top three, with the next closest car that of Citroën’s José María López, over a second behind.

“The Hondas are close, but as Rob said, you have to go out there and get the grip from the track as it’s getting faster every lap, and ideally you have to be the last one across the line,” said Monteiro.

Behind López, the fastest of the Ladas was Hugo Valente, 1.6 seconds from Huff’s pace in the Vesta WTCC, with Yvan Muller sixth fastest in the Citroën C-Elysée.

Thed Björk put the Volvo S60 TC1 of Polestar Cyan Racing in the top ten with a time time of 1:59.103, while Tom Chilton was the quickest of the independent drivers, 2.4 seconds off the pace in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën.

Daniel Nagy took to the track and completed one lap after the team resolved a throttle sensor problem early in the session. The 18-year-old Hungarian completed just one lap in the Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic before returning to the pits.

At the end of the session, the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze of Tom Coronel stopped on track with a mechanical problem, but with the session already complete this didn’t affect anyone’s lap times.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled to start at 11:00 local time (WEST).