Photo: WTCC Media

Néstor Girolami on top again in final practice session in Japan

By

Argentina’s Néstor Girolami again topped the time sheets in the final practice session in Japan, setting a last-minute flyer in his Polestar Volvo S60 to drop the Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Citroën of Tom Chilton to second just as the chequered flag was waved.

With the conditions much warmer than for Free Practice 1, the times had dropped off slightly, but unlike the first session there were improvements throughout the 30 minutes.

Lada’s Nicky Catsburg led the way for the first ten minutes in the Lada Vesta, before the Citroëns took over with Yvan Muller briefly going fastest with a time of 1:58.068 before first José María López and then Tom Chilton went faster, with Chilton almost three-tenths of a second quicker.

Girolami’s time was set on his final run on new tyres, and dropped Chilton by 85-thousandths of a second with Chilton’s team-mate and independents’ title rival Mehdi Bennani third.

John Filippi was an impressive fourth in the Campos Racing Chevrolet Cruze, the fastest of the RML-built cars for the second consecutive session, with José María López finishing down in fifth.

Yvan Muller was next, followed by the fastest of the Hondas, that of Tiago Monteiro, with Nicky Catsburg the quickest of the Lada drivers in eighth, with Thed Björk ninth in the second Volvo with the ROAL Chevrolet of Tom Coronel rounding out the top ten.

Qualifying follows next at 15:00 local time (JST).