Motegi, FP2: Girolami leaves it late to top WTCC times (again!)

"We improved a lot in this session"

By Franck Drui

3 September 2016 - 04:50
Motegi, FP2: Girolami leaves it (...)

Néstor Girolami continued his impressive start to life as a factory Polestar Cyan Racing driver in the FIA World Touring Car Championship with the fastest time in Free Practice 2 at WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of Japan.

There were 30 seconds left on the TAG Heuer timing screen when the back-to-back Súper TC2000 champion from Argentina clocked a 1m57.646s best to demote Tom Chilton as the 30-minute session’s quickest driver.

“We improved a lot in this session,” said the 27-year-old Girolami. “I felt the car great in every corner but we need to focus on qualifying now. The pace was very good and I felt very good pace each lap. If we can do that [again] it will make a very good qualifying.”

Chilton, who was the fastest WTCC Trophy contender, ended up 0.085s slower than Volvo racer Girolami with Mehdi Bennani, in a second Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën, third followed by John Filippi (Campos Racing Chevrolet) and reigning WTCC champion José María López, who edged factory Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller by a mere 0.012s. Muller had been quickest of all for several minutes earlier in the session.

Tiago Monteiro was the fastest works Honda driver in seventh with Nicky Catsburg eighth for LADA, Thed Björk ninth in the second Polestar Volvo and Tom Coronel rounding out the top 10.

Elsewhere, Hugo Valente, who became a father to a baby girl overnight, was P11 for LADA with team-mate Gabriele Tarquini P12 and Rob P13 for Honda. Huff’s Civic-driving team-mates Norbert Michelisz and Ryo Michigami were next up.

Qualifying is up next from 15h00 local time.

Pos. Driver Team Car Time
1 Nestor Girolami Polestar Cyan Volvo 1:57.646
2 Tom Chilton Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1:57.731
3 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1:57.919
4 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1:58.025
5 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:58.056
6 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:58.068
7 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:58.157
8 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Lada 1:58.202
9 Thed Bjork Polestar Cyan Volvo 1:58.232
10 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1:58.361
11 Hugo Valente LADA Sport Lada 1:58.578
12 Gabriele Tarquini LADA Sport Lada 1:58.633
13 Rob Huff Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:58.637
14 Norbert Michelisz Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:58.858
15 Ryo Michigami Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:59.028
16 James Thompson Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1:59.065
17 Grégoire Demoustier Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1:59.290
18 Daniel Nagy Zengo Honda 1:59.809
19 Ferenc Ficza Zengo Honda 1:59.845

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