Mat’o Homola tops opening WTCR practice at Suzuka with late effort

DG Sport Compétition’s Mato Homola topped the timesheets in the opening World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) practice session at Suzuka with a late effort of 2:13.087s.

The Peugeot racer was amongst four late improvers believed to be running fresh rubber in the final minutes to eclipse Norbert Michelisz’s early benchmark.

Homola edged out Aurélien Panis in the final moments of the session after the latter had set his best time on his tenth tour of the legendary Suzuka circuit.

Homola’s teammate Aurélien Comte made it two DG Sport Compétition Peugeot’s in the top three ahead of Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda.

Michelisz was the top Hyundai, setting the pace early on in the 30-minute session with an effort eventually good enough for fifth ahead of Denis Dupont.

In seventh was Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani – the only Volkswagen in the top ten – ahead of Pepe Oriola’s lively CUPRA which had a high-speed off-track moment at 130R in the latter stages.

Fellow CUPRA runner John Fillippi impressed in ninth, with Nathanaël Berthon rounding out the top ten.

Tiago Monteiro made a welcome return to a great reception at the end of the pit lane just before the session went green, 415 days after his massive testing shunt in September 2017.

Neither Zengö Motorsport CUPRAs ran in the session, as both Norbert Nagy and Zsolt David Szabo were not present at the circuit and required collecting from their hotel.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2:13.087	0.000
2	21	Aurélien PANIS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:13.243	0.156
3	7	Aurélien COMTE		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	2:13.519	0.432
4	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	10	2:13.804	0.717
5	5	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:13.864	0.777
6	20	Denis DUPONT		Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:13.918	0.831
7	25	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	2:13.985	0.898
8	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	10	2:14.022	0.935
9	27	John FILIPPI		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	2:14.064	0.977
10	23	Nathanaël BERTHON		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:14.099	1.012
11	22	Frédéric VERVISCH		Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS	9	2:14.134	1.047
12	30	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	2:14.152	1.065
13	12	Rob HUFF		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	2:14.161	1.074
14	31	Kevin CECCON		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	12	2:14.217	1.130
15	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:14.357	1.270
16	68	Yann EHRLACHER		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:14.363	1.276
17	42	Timo SCHEIDER		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:14.412	1.325
18	48	Yvan MULLER		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:14.437	1.350
19	11	Thed BJÖRK		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	2:14.579	1.492
20	52	Gordon SHEDDEN		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:14.640	1.553
21	16	Luigi FERRARA		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	11	2:14.863	1.776
22	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	9	2:15.084	1.997
23	9	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	7	2:15.345	2.258
24	8	Norbert NAGY		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	0	No time	N/A
25	66	Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	0	No time	N/A