Honda drivers hit by gremlins in Suzuka Testing

Three Honda drivers suffered from problems in the opening session of the Japanese Manufacturer’s home race weekend. Mehdi Bennani only performed an installation lap before withdrawing his Proteam Honda Civic WTCC from the Friday testing session in Suzuka, Japan.

The Moroccan driver, fresh from his maiden win in the series at Shanghai, was hit by an engine problem which prevented him from getting precious track time in ahead of the weekend.

The issue is still being investigated by the team. The source is said to be the turbo, but the exact problem was not clarified.

“It’s a shame because this was the right time for me to learn the track and collect data,” said Bennani to TouringCarTimes. “We had a few issues this year, and the timing was not good because we will not be able to work on the data tonight.”

Proteam owner Valmiro Presenzini was philosophical about the matter:”In motorsport issues like this can happen. It’s a pity it happened on such an important occasion of course, but it’s better now than during the key moments such as Qualifying or the races.”

The engine team has been very quick to investigate the issue and is putting a big effort in order to get the Civic back to its original form.

Honda driver Norbert Michelisz also had a problem with the splitter, which may be linked to the small off the had between Turns 8 and 9.

Gabriele Tarquini’s car suffered from problems early in the session, but the Civic was fixed in time for the Italian to go out on track after the red flag and set the seventh best time of the session, whereas team-mate Tiago Monteiro came fourth just a blink of an eye behind Citroën’s Yvan Muller.