Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz was fastest in morning warm-up for the World Touring Car Championship at Sonoma Raceway, with LADA’s James Thompson second and Honda’s Tiago Monteiro third.
Click here for the full morning warm-up times.
Hungarian Michelisz was undeterred by an engine-change penalty that means he will start Sunday’s first race from the back of the grid, posting the fastest time of 1:45.917 in the final three minutes of the 15-minute session.
Brit Thompson was second fastest, four tenths off Michelisz’s time, after a lap late in the session. Third fastest Monteiro was just over half a second off fellow Honda driver Michelisz’s pace.
RML’s Yvan Muller was fourth, with the leading BMW driver Mehdi Bennani in fifth. Poleman Tom Chilton was sixth fastest for RML.
Tuenti’s Pepe Oriola and Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff were the last two drivers within a second of Michelisz in seventh and eighth respectively.
A couple of drivers experienced spins and off-track excurions, including René Münnich who spun on the exit of turn one approaching turn two, and Mikhail Kozlovskiy who ran wide through the dust on the exit off turn two.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel failed to set a time, retiring to the pits after a handful of out-laps.
Race one takes place at 11:50 PDT (19:50 BST; 20:50 CEST).