Australian GP || March 16 || 15h00 (Local time)

Shanghai, FP1: Hometown hero Ma sets WTCC pace

Tiago Monteiro in second place

By Franck Drui

26 September 2015 - 04:15

Citroën driver Ma Qing Hua raised hopes of a home victory in ROSNEFT WTCC Race of China with the fastest time in Free Practice 1 for rounds 19 and 20 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend.

The Shanghai resident lapped his local track in 1m51.706s to head Honda’s Tiago Monteiro with José María López third for Citroën and Gabriele Tarquini (Honda) fourth as the two makes fought out a close battle for early supremacy.

Mehdi Bennani, a winner in Shanghai last season, topped the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy runners in fifth with class rival Tom Chilton sixth in his Chevrolet RML Cruze. Norbert Michelisz was seventh, LADA Sport Rosneft’s Rob Huff eighth and Yvan Muller next up as less than one second covered the top nine drivers. LADA’s Nicky Catsburg rounded out the top 10.

Free Practice 2 is next up at 11h10 local time.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:51.706
2	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:51.837
3	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:52.042
4	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:52.190
5	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:52.339
6	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:52.494
7	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:52.562
8	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:52.629
9	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:52.668
10	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:52.749
11	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:52.920
12	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:52.941
13	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:52.947
14	Nicolas Lapierre	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:53.193
15	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1:53.656
16	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:53.907
17	Stefano D’Aste	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:54.032