Paul Ricard WTCC: Bjork puts Volvo on top in final practice

The Swede finished ahead of Tiago Monteiro's Honda and the Lada of Nicky Catsburg, with the best-placed Citroen that of Yvan Muller in fifth.

Bjork jumped to the fore half-way through the 30-minute session, the first time the track has been dry for the WTCC this weekend, with any damp patches cleared up by the preceding European F3 race.

Very few drivers attempted qualifying runs as is usually typical in the final half of the session, with Honda instead opting to rehearse the new MAC3 time trial system with their drivers, which follows after qualifying this afternoon.

With no improvements late in the session, Bjork’s time of 1m30.069s stood to the end of the session, with Honda’s Monteiro his closest rival, after the Portuguese driver had finished fastest in the earlier session which was held in wet conditions.

The fastest of the Citroens, all carrying 80kg of compensation weight this weekend was Muller ahead of reigning champion Jose Maria Lopez.

The best placed of the Chevrolet drivers was Tom Coronel in ninth, who was also the fastest independent driver with Volvo's Fredrick Ekblom seventh.

Honda's Norbert Michelisz finished eighth while Sebastian Loeb Racing's Tom Chilton completed the top 10.

FP2 Results:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Thed Bjork	Volvo	1'30.069
2	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	1'30.417	0.348
3	Nicky Catsburg	Lada	1'30.420	0.351
4	Gabriele Tarquini	Lada	1'30.515	0.446
5	Yvan Muller	Citroen	1'30.531	0.462
6	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen	1'30.787	0.718
7	Fredrik Ekblom	Volvo	1'30.945	0.876
8	Norbert Michelisz	Honda	1'30.976	0.907
9	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	1'31.021	0.952
10	Tom Chilton	Citroen	1'31.222	1.153
11	Mehdi Bennani	Citroen	1'31.255	1.186
12	Rob Huff	Honda	1'31.307	1.238
13	John Filippi	Chevrolet	1'31.533	1.464
14	Rene Munnich	Chevrolet	1'31.723	1.654
15	Hugo Valente	Lada	1'31.731	1.662
16	Gregoire Demoustier	Citroen	1'31.781	1.712
17	Ferenc Ficza	Honda	1'38.551	8.482