Photo: WTCC Media

Fredrik Ekblom fastest by some way in second free practice in China

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Polestar Volvo’s Fredrik Ekblom topped the time sheets in the second free practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit, leading Campos Chevrolet driver John Filippi by almost half a second, with team-mate Thed Björk completing the top three.

After Björk had led the way in Free Practice 1, it was Ekblom’s turn on his WTCC return to take over in the second session, with the Volvo driver leading team-mate Björk during the early stages of second practice. Just after the half-way mark, first Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, then Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën driver Mehdi Bennani jumped to the fore in the 30-minute session, with Bennani beating Björk’s time from FP1.

With just under ten minutes to go, John Filippi then went fastest of all in his Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze on new tyres, before Ekblom went out again also on fresh tyres and blitzed the young Corsican’s time with a lap of 1:51.400, with team-mate Björk moving up to third position, with all of the top three drivers in the session in cars which are carrying no compensation weight this weekend.

“We learned quite a few things (between FP1 and FP2),” said Ekblom. “We tried some new things on the car and I had better tyres in Free Practice 2. I don’t have a lot of experience on this track, but my car felt good.”

Bennani was the top Citroën, with the French cars again carrying the maximum penalty of 80kg of weight this weekend, with Tom Coronel fifth fastest in his ballast-free ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet.

The fastest of the Hondas was Tiago Monteiro in sixth, ahead of the privateer Citroën of Tom Chilton, with Norbert Michelisz (Honda), Gabriele Tarquini (Lada) and champion elect José María López (Citroën) rounding out the top ten.

Notable names outside of the top ten included Citroën’s Yvan Muller, with the Frenchman ending up 13th fastest, with Honda’s Rob Huff 14th fastest, both drivers around 1.5 seconds from Ekblom’s pace, perhaps hiding their true performance ahead of qualifying.

Qualifying is up next and takes place at 14:30 CST (08:30 CET).