Practice report
WTCC Moscow
Moscow WTCC: Catsburg puts Lada on top in first practice
Nicky Catsburg was fastest in Saturday morning’s first practice session at Lada's home race at the Moscow Raceway.
Edited: Jun 11, 2016, 9:00 AM
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The Dutch driver deprived Honda of another top three lock-out at the last minute, with the Japanese marque having to settle for second through fourth, while Citroen struggled in the 30-minute session, with all cars missing the top ten.
Catsburg produced his best time of 1m38.549s with just a minute to go, dropping Norbert Michelisz down to second, with a time almost four-tenths of a second faster than the Honda driver.
Honda continue to show good pace after taking the top three spots in yesterday's test session, despite running their original flat floor following yesterday’s FIA appeal court ruling.
Rob Huff was just 0.075 seconds behind team-mate Michelisz in third, with Tiago Monteiro fourth, 0.042 further behind.
Polestar Cyan Racing put on a strong performance with Thed Bjork fifth fastest in the Volvo S60 ahead of Lada drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente, with John Filippi the best-placed of the independent drivers in eighth in his Campos Racing-run Chevrolet Cruze.
All five Citroen C-Elysee WTCCs were well off the pace in the session, with Yvan Muller the fastest for the French manufacturer, which are all still carrying the maximum compensation weight of 80kg.
Muller was 12th, 1.4 seconds from Catsburg's time, with the privateer Citroen of Mehdi Bennani 14th, and championship leader Jose Maria Lopez down in 15th with the remaining privateer Citroens filling out the final positions down to 17th.
FP1 results:
PosDriverCarTime/GapLaps 1 
Nicky Catsburg Lada 1:38.549 12 2 
Norbert Michelisz Honda +0.389 13 3 
Rob Huff Honda +0.464 13 4 
Tiago Monteiro Honda +0.506 13 5 
Thed Björk Volvo +0.558 13 6 
Gabriele Tarquini Lada +0.628 12 7 
Hugo Valente Lada +0.862 13 8 John Filippi Chevrolet +0.867 12 9 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo +1.008 12 10 Tom Coronel Chevrolet +1.160 13 11 Ferenc Ficza Honda +1.228 14 12 Yvan Muller Citroen +1.407 14 13 James Thompson Chevrolet +1.490 14 14 
Mehdi Bennani Citroen +1.553 14 15 
Jose Maria Lopez Citroen +1.733 14 16 Tom Chilton Citroen +1.937 12 17 Grégoire Demoustier Citroen +2.376 13
Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes
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