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

Shanghai, Tests: WTCC Hondas on top in Shanghai

Norbert Michelisz second

By Franck Drui

25 September 2015 - 11:10

Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini has set the ROSNEFT WTCC Race of China testing pace with fellow Civic racer Norbert Michelisz second and title leader José María López third quickest for Citroën.

Tarquini, in a Honda Civic WTCC, set a fastest time of 1m51.222s with Michelisz fractionally slower on a 1m51.271s. López clocked a personal best of 1m51.333s as less than one second covered the top 12 to underline the competitiveness of the WTCC and the prospect of two action-packed races on Sunday.

Behind fourth-placed Yvan Muller, Nicky Catsburg was the leading LADA driver in fifth followed by Mehdi Benanni and Tom Chilton in a Chevrolet RML Cruze. Rob Huff, local hero Ma Qing Hua and Sébastien Loeb completed the top 10.

The next track activity is Free Practice 1 at 09h10 local time on Saturday.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:51.222
2	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:51.271
3	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:51.333
4	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:51.543
5	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:51.545
6	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:51.674
7	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:51.674
8	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:51.678
9	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:51.818
10	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:51.822
11	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:51.881
12	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:52.209
13	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:52.336
14	Nicolas Lapierre	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:52.536
15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:52.950
16	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1:53.782
17	Stefano D’Aste	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:54.996