Moscow WTCC: Catsburg puts Lada on top in first practice

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:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time/Gap	Laps
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