Norbert Michelisz tops first practice in Portugal as Tom Coronel collides with a truck
Norbert Michelisz led a Honda 1-2 in the first free practice session at the Vila Real street circuit, but all the focus was on an incident mid-session for Dutch driver Tom Coronel, who slid off down an escape road and hit a parked fire truck.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani set the early pace, but after ten minutes, Michelisz jumped to the top of the time sheets in his Honda Civic, and led the way through much of the rest of the session.
The joker lap, which adds around two seconds to the lap, was open for use during the practice, with Norbert Michelisz opting to try the new route the most of any driver – a total of six times during the session, while others, such as Campos Chevrolet driver Esteban Guerrieri who has experience of a joker jap in the Super TC 2000 Championship, opted not to even make one attempt.
Yann Ehrlacher ran into trouble early on in his RC Motorsport Lada when he clouted the barriers and punctured his front-right tyre, but the Frenchman would still end the session in the top ten, finishing ninth, just under three seconds off of Michelisz’s pace.
The next and most notable drama occurred with just over 25 minutes to go. After complaining of chronic understeer, ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel seemed to lose his brakes and shot off down an escape road, where he collided with a manned fire truck.
With Coronel’s far off the circuit, the session continued interrupted, with Michelisz then breaking under the two-minute mark with a time of 1:59.574.
The Hungarian improved on his time two more times in the session, finishing up on a 1:58.118, over half a second clear of his Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro.
The session was red flagged with just over ten minutes to go, with a dog loose on the track at the final corner. After the dog was rounded up by the marshals, the session resumed, but no one had the pace to stop Michelisz.
Thed Björk was third fastest in the Polestar Volvo S60, just over a second off the pace, with Rob Huff fourth fastest in the Münnich Citroën C-Elysée WTCC, with championship leader Nicky Catsburg fifth.
The second session is due to start at 12:00 WEST, but the schedule is already behind.
Footage of Coronel’s incident is below:
