Norbert Michelisz leads abandoned first practice in Argentina due to fog

Honda’s Norbert Michelisz led a severely shortened first practice session at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit in Argentina, which was already delayed by almost an hour due to thick fog, which was then abandoned again when it returned.

The session had started 45 minutes behind schedule due to the visibility issues, which were not only dangerous for the cars going out on track, but also meant the medical evacuation helicopter was effectively grounded.

When the session finally began, the first benchmark was quickly set by Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff with a time of 1:46.066 in his Citroën C-Elysée, before the session was immediately red flagged when the Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic of Zsolt Szabo stopped out on circuit, with the 21-year-old’s WTCC debut lasting less than a lap of the practice session.

When the Hungarian’s car was recovered, the session began ten minutes later, with Norbert Michelisz quickly taking over at the top of the time sheets, leading Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro, but the fog then began to thicken again at the Argentinian circuit.

The session was red flagged as conditions worsened, with the drivers complaining of poor visibility. This left Michelisz on top of the time sheets with just 17 minutes of the originally scheduled 45 minutes having taken place. Michelisz was just under half a second clear of Honda team-mate Monteiro, with the Polestar Volvo of Nicky Catsburg third fastest in his S60 TC1.

“I was looking forward to drive this morning, but we’ve only had a few laps because of the fog,” said pace-setter Michelisz. “At the beginning it was OK, but then at the end we couldn’t even see further than 50-60 metres ahead, so (red flagging) I think it was the right thing to do.”

The best-placed of the independent runners was Mehdi Bennani in fourth overall in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée WTCC, leading the other two Volvos of Néstor Girolami and Thed Björk.

Rob Huff ended the session seventh fastest, ahead of the Honda Civic of Ryo Michigami, with the Citroën of Tom Chilton and the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet of Tom Coronel completing the top ten.

The second free practice session is due to take place at 10:50 local time, just one hour after the first practice session was aborted.