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Paul Ricard, FP1: Monteiro and Honda ahead in the WTCC

Demoustier had a strong run to third

By Franck Drui

2 April 2016 - 09:40

Tiago Monteiro claimed top spot in first practice for the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship, the JVCKENWOOD Race of France at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Honda driver Monteiro set a time of 1m42.565s after the chequered flag to beat the defending champion José María López of Citroën by 0.133 seconds on a wet track.

Frenchman Grégoire Demoustier had a strong run to third in his Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Citroën, just one thousandth of a second slower than López and ahead in the WTCC Trophy.

He was ahead of Honda’s Norbert Michelisz and new LADA man Gabriele Tarquini, while Rob Huff in his Honda was sixth. Next up was Tom Chilton in his Citroën, who was within half a second of the pace.

Nicky Catsburg of LADA and Citroën’s Yvan Muller were eighth and ninth respectively, with 10th taken by Volvo’s Fredrik Ekblom.

The second practice session takes place at 11h45 local time.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:42.565
2	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:42.698
3	Grégoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:42.699
4	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:42.799
5	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	1:42.824
6	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:42.904
7	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:43.040
8	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1:43.213
9	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:43.321
10	Fredrik Ekblom	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	1:43.595
11	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	1:43.644
12	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:44.033
13	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	1:44.217
14	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:44.295
15	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo	Honda	2:20.721
16	Rene Munnich	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:30.946
17	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	-:—.---
18	Daniel Nagy	Zengo	Honda	-:—.---