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Vila Real, FP1: Huff heads Honda WTCC 1-2-3

Dániel Nagy appeared in a WTCC session for the first time

By Franck Drui

25 June 2016 - 10:40

The trio of factory Honda drivers occupied the top three places in first practice for FIA WTCC Race of Portugal.

Rob Huff claimed top spot away from Norbert Michelisz after the chequered flag, his lap of 1m56.941s beating his team-mate’s effort by a quarter of a second.

Home hero Tiago Monteiro was two tenths further back in the third Honda, and one second clear of fourth-placed José María López of Citroën. LADA driver Hugo Valente was close behind the championship leader and ahead of the second Citroën man Yvan Muller.

Thed Björk was seventh in the best Volvo, followed by the leading WTCC Trophy duo of Tom Chilton and Mehdi Bennani. Nicky Catsburg took 10th for LADA.

Returning Polestar Cyan Racing driver Robert Dahlgren was 13th behind Chevrolet racers Tom Coronel and John Filippi.

Eighteen-year-old Dániel Nagy appeared in a WTCC session for the first time, getting on track towards the end after his Zengő Motorsport team was able to fit an engine into his Honda.

Free Practice 2 takes place at 11h00.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:56.941
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:57.188
3	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:57.405
4	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:58.436
5	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	1:58.507
6	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:58.639
7	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	1:59.103
8	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:59.330
9	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:59.427
10	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1:59.651
11	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:00.305
12	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2:00.415
13	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Cyan	Volvo	2:00.488
14	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:00.623
15	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	2:00.680
16	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo	Honda	2:01.942
17	Grégoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2:02.183
18	Daniel Nagy	Zengo	Honda	9:33.720