Tiago Monteiro leads Moscow Friday testing

Tiago Monteiro emerged as the fastest driver in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship at the Moscow Raceway, as Honda took the top three positions in Russia.

Monteiro, who is returning to action just two weeks after his dramatic crash last time out in Germany, ended up three tenths faster than team-mate Norbert Michelisz, with Rob Huff a close third.

LADA’s Nicky Catsburg was the leading LADA driver on the marque’s home soil, encouragingly within half a second of the pace.

- Advertisement -

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk took fifth, ahead of the second LADA of Hugo Valente in sixth.

Only one works Citroën made it into the top ten, with José María López seventh fastest at his ‘bogey track’, just 0.001 seconds slower than Valente at just over seven tenths off the pace.

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani was the fastest independent racer in ninth, although it will be his team-mate Tom Chilton, who was 11^th, who takes over the duties for Citroën in MAC3 on Saturday.

In total 14 drivers were within two seconds of the pace, with Yvan Muller surprisingly distant in 14^th as he completed just nine laps – fewer than any other driver – around the circuit.

Session results

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	18		Tiago MONTEIRO		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	13	1:38.523	0.000
2	5		Norbert MICHELISZ		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	13	1:38.828	0.305
3	12		Rob HUFF		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	13	1:38.921	0.398
4	10		Nicky CATSBURG		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	13	1:38.995	0.472
5	62		Thed BJÖRK		Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo S60 WTCC	11	1:39.165	0.642
6	7		Hugo VALENTE		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	12	1:39.247	0.724
7	37		José María LÓPEZ		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	11	1:39.248	0.725
8	61		Fredrik EKBLOM		Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo S60 WTCC	11	1:39.284	0.761
9	25	T	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	14	1:39.371	0.848
10	27	T	John FILIPPI		Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	12	1:39.392	0.869
11	3	T	Tom CHILTON		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	1:39.508	0.985
12	9	T	Tom CORONEL		ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	12	1:39.819	1.296
13	2		Gabriele TARQUINI		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	12	1:39.890	1.367
14	68		Yvan MULLER		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	9	1:39.890	1.367
15	15	T	James THOMPSON		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	1:40.628	2.105
16	11	T	Grégoire DEMOUSTIER		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	1:41.256	2.733
17	55	T	Ferenc FICZA		Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	13	1:41.411	2.888