Photo: WTCC Media

Norbert Michelisz tops the times in first Qatar practice

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Honda’s Norbert Michelisz was fastest of all in the first free practice session at the Losail circuit in Qatar, leading the Citroën of Macau winner Rob Huff and the Volvo of his championship rival Thed Björk.

The Münnich Motorsport Citroën of Rob Huff led the way during the first 15 minutes of the 45-minute session, which was briefly suspended behind a full course yellow when Tom Chilton’s SLR Citroën hit a tyre stack at Turn 7, dislodging the stack and damaging the front-left of Chilton’s C-Elysée WTCC.

The British driver took no further part in the session as the team worked to repair the car’s broken steering in time for this evening’s second and final practice session.

After 15 minutes, championship contender Norbert Michelisz took over the top of the time sheets in the Honda Civic, over half a second clear of Huff with a time of 2:01.775, while championship leader Thed Björk now placed his Volvo in second, just over a tenth of a second behind.

With just under 15 minutes left to go, the session was red-flagged when Kris Richard’s Campos Racing Chevrolet Cruze ground to a halt at Turn 15, with the marshals forced to push his car around the final corner and back into the pit lane.

When the session resumed, Rob Huff re-emerged as Michelisz’s closest threat, with the Münnich Citroën driver closing to just three-hundredths of a second of the Honda driver’s time.

Michelisz then produced one final flyer at the end of the session, going two-tenths faster with a time of 2:01.595 to end the session fastest of all in the Honda Civic ahead of Huff, followed by the three Polestar Volvos of Thed Björk, Nicky Catsburg and WTCC returnee Yvan Muller.

The second-best of the Hondas was Esteban Guerrieri in sixth, with Mehdi Bennani seventh fastest in his SLR Citroën. Yann Ehrlacher was eighth in the fastest of the RC Motorsport Ladas, with the Citroëns of Tom Chilton and John Filippi completing the top ten, despite Chilton only having set one timed lap.

The second free practice session takes place at 21:15 AST (19:15 CET).