Sonoma, Testing: First blood to Honda in California

Muller posted the seventh fastest lap

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6 September 2013 - 22:51
Sonoma, Testing: First blood to (…)

Last year, the WTCC’s first visit to the Sonoma Raceway in Northern California saw Chevrolet score a pair of victories, but it was a Honda Civic that posted the fastest time in the first session of the 2013 meeting.

In Friday’s Testing session, the Castrol Honda Team’s car of Tiago Monteiro set a best lap time of 1:46.300, ahead of the SEAT León of the reigning World Champion Rob Huff (1:46.432) and Pepe Oriola in the quickest Chevrolet Cruze (1:46.691).

The thirty-minute session saw all three of the Honda cars top the timesheets, with Monteiro’s teammate Gabriele Tarquini the early pacesetter. Norbert Michelisz in the Zengö Motorsport Civic set the fastest time with around eight minutes of the session remaining before Tarquini again, then Tom Chilton in the RML Chevrolet and finally Monterio set the best lap.

Yvan Muller, current point leder in the championship, posted the seventh fastest lap (1:46.936), just behind Tom Coronel who emerged as the best of the BMW drivers (1:46.900).

Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani topped the Yokohama Trophy field with a lap of 1:47.269 that was worth the ninth position overall.

Incidents included the LADA Granta of James Thompson limping back to the pits with a loose front wheel caused by a suspension problem, while Charles Ng spun at Turn 3 and both Darryl O’Young and Fernando Monje went out-and-back at T6.

Saturday will see the WTCC field take to the track for two thirty-minute Free Practice sessions, before the two-stage Qualifying begins at 14.00 local time (23.00 CET).

Pos. Driver Car Time
1 Tiago MONTEIRO Honda Civic 1:46.300
2 Rob HUFF SEAT Leon WTCC 1:46.432
3 Pepe ORIOLA Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:46.691
4 Tom CHILTON Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:46.829
5 Gabriele TARQUINI Honda Civic 1:46.840
6 Tom CORONEL BMW 320 TC 1:46.900
7 Yvan MULLER Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:46.936
8 Norbert MICHELISZ Honda Civic 1:47.169
9 Mehdi BENNANI BMW 320 TC 1:47.269
10 Darryl O’YOUNG BMW 320 TC 1:47.508
11 Michel NYKJAER Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:47.674
12 Alex MACDOWALL Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:47.775
13 Hugo VALENTE SEAT Leon WTCC 1:47.886
14 Fernando MONJE SEAT Leon WTCC 1:48.012
15 James NASH Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:48.111
16 Stefano D’ASTE BMW 320 TC 1:48.167
17 James THOMPSON Lada Granta 1:48.424
18 Marc BASSENG SEAT Leon WTCC 1:48.441
19 Charles NG BMW 320 TC 1:48.863
20 Mikhail KOZLOVSKIY Lada Granta 1:48.903
21 Tom BOARDMAN SEAT Leon WTCC 1:49.425
22 Franz ENGSTLER BMW 320 TC 1:49.609
23 René MUNNICH SEAT Leon WTCC 1:49.947
24 Fredy BARTH BMW 320 TC 1:50.309

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