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Russia, Tests: Monteiro heads a WTCC Honda 1-2-3 in Moscow

Showing no ill effects from his crash

By Franck Drui

10 June 2016 - 12:15

Tiago Monteiro topped the times in the Testing session ahead of FIA WTCC ROSNEFT Race of Russia, leading Honda team-mates Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff.

Showing no ill effects from his crash at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Monteiro led for most of the session and finished up with a best time of 1m38.523s. Michelisz and Huff claimed second and third respectively late in the session, although both were three tenths of a second down on their team-mate.

Nicky Catsburg made it a positive start to the home event for LADA by claiming fourth. Volvo driver Fredrik Ekblom briefly interrupted Monteiro’s dominance but was shuffled back to eighth within a few minutes, behind team-mate Thed Björk, LADA’s Hugo Valente and the championship leader José María López of Citroën.

Mehdi Bennani was the quickest WTCC Trophy driver in ninth, but just 0.021 seconds faster than John Filippi.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:38.523
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:38.828
3	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:38.921
4	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1:38.995
5	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	1:39.165
6	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	1:39.247
7	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:39.248
8	Fredrik Ekblom	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	1:39.284
9	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:39.371
10	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:39.392
11	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:39.508
12	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:39.819
13	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	1:39.890
14	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:39.890
15	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:40.628
16	Grégoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:41.256
17	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo	Honda	1:41.411