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Vila Real, FP1 : Muller masters the Vila Real streets in the WTCC

“I found a better balance than yesterday"

By Paul Gombeaud

11 July 2015 - 11:10

Yvan Muller showed his street fighting qualities to the full with the fastest time in Free Practice 1 for OSCARO.com WTCC Race of Portugal.

Muller, a four-time winner of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, took 2m00.749s to lap the 4.755-kilometre Vila Real street circuit as he continued to hone his Citroën C-Elysée WTCC ahead of this afternoon’s Qualifying shootout.

“I am still not sure about the chicanes here but I don’t have a choice so I have to go for it and that’s why I pushed,” said Frenchman Muller. “I found a better balance than yesterday. At the end of the session we were working more for the qually and we will see for the second session. We can still improve and that’s the target so now I have to analyse everything quietly.”

Reigning WTCC champion and Friday testing pacesetter José María López was second fastest, 0.084s slower than his Citroën team-mate with Norbert Michelisz the top Honda runner in third followed by Sébastien Loeb, Ma Qing Hua and Gabriele Tarquini. Local hero Tiago Monteiro was next as less than a second covered the top-seven drivers. Néstor Girolami was eighth, Hugo Valente ninth and Mehdi Bennani P10.

Tarquini’s session ended in dramatic fashion when he crashed into Tom Chilton’s Chevrolet. They were called to the race stewards following the incident, which inflicted damage to both cars.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:00.749
2	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:00.833
3	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2:00.909
4	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:00.964
5	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:01.353
6	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2:01.399
7	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2:01.527
8	Nestor Girolami	Nika International	Honda	2:01.799
9	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2:02.057
10	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2:02.551
11	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:02.684
12	Jaap Van Lagen	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:02.809
13	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:03.289
14	Stefano D’Aste	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:03.319
15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:03.888
16	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2:05.192
17	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:05.399
18	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	2:07.581