ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel set the pace in Saturday’s first free practice session for the World Touring Car Championship at the Moscow Raceway, beating Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff to the top time.
Click here for the full first practice times.
Under cludy skies, Coronel improved on his pace in Friday testing to take the top spot halfway through the session, despite suffering a spin heading onto the circuit’s long back straight.
Huff moved up to second late in the session, beating the two RML Chevrolet’s of Yvan Muller and Tom Chilton who were third and fourth respectively, around two tenths off the pace.
Mehdi Bennani contiuned his strong practice pace by posting the fifth fastest time, ahead of the top Honda of Gabriele Tarquini. The Italian had been the first driver to set a competitive time, and was top of the times in the first half of the session, before being demoted as the BMW’s and Chevrolet’s gathered pace.
Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjær was seventh, ahead of Zengő’s Norbert Michelisz. Tiago Monteiro and WTCC newcomer Nikolay Karamyshev completed the top ten, with the Russian driver standing in for Hugo Valente at his home round of the championship.
LADA’s James Thompson ended the session in 11th, having featured inside the top ten until the closing minutes.
Five minutes from the end of the session PB Racing’s Stefano D’Aste went off the track at turn ten, clipping the barriers and preventing further improvements to the times.
The other Russian driver in the field, Mikhail Kozlovskiy, was 17th fastest for LADA, ahead of Charles Ng in 18th who suffered a spin exiting turn nine at the end of the session.
Several drivers, including Muller, Nykjær, Engstler and Coronel suffered spins and slides throughout the session, especially at turn nine and ten, as the drivers pushed to find the limit at the new circuit.
Second free practice takes place at 12:00 MSK (09:00 BST, 10:00 CEST).