Tiago Monteiro and Honda dominate testing at Moscow Raceway

Honda Racing Team JAS driver Tiago Monteiro set the fastest lap in this afternoon’s testing session at the Moscow Raceway, leading an all Honda top three.

Monteiro set a best time of 1.38.523 in his Honda Civic WTCC. The Portuguese driver, second in the provisional standings, was followed by team-mates Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff, with the 2012 champion 0.398 seconds off the pace.

Nicky Catsburg defended the Lada corner at home in fourth position, lapping with his Vesta WTCC 0.472 seconds off the pace. Volvo Polestar driver Thed Björk was next in the classification at the wheel of the S60 TC1, a further 0.170 seconds behind. Hugo Valente was next for Lada Sport in sixth.

Reigning champion and standings leader José María López followed in seventh, also the fastest of the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC cars, seven-tenths off the pace and just one-thousandth behind Valente. Volvo Polestar’s Fredrik Ekblom was eighth, with another top ten result for the Swedish team.

Mehdi Bennani was the fastest of the independent drivers in the C-Elysée run by Sébastien Loeb Racing, 0.848 seconds behind Monteiro. Campos Racing driver John Filippi completed the top ten, the best of the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s.

James Thompson, who is on duty for Münnich Motorsport for the third time this season, was 15th fastest, 2.105 seconds off the pace.

The session was completed in dry weather conditions and was largely trouble free, with all 17 entrants this weekend taking to the track.

Next up is the first free practice session tomorrow morning at 9:00 local time.