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Buriram WTCC: Norbert Michelisz leads Saturday in Zengo Honda

Honda driver Norbert Michelisz posted the fastest time of testing and practice on Saturday ahead of the first ever World Touring Car Championship races in Thailand at the Buriram circuit

The Hungarian topped the test session in the morning, and his 1m38.260s lap remained unbeaten during the two practice sessions held at the end of the day.

Michelisz was 0.148 seconds ahead of Lada driver Nicolas Lapierre, with Sebastien Loeb over half a second back in the quickest Citroen in third.

Tom Chilton ended the day fourth fastest after leading second practice with a 1m38.881s lap set with just over five minutes remaining.

Gabriele Tarquini took second place in the session with a deficit of 0.078s to the British Chevrolet racer, and led fellow Honda drivers Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro.

Mehdi Bennani was the top Citroen in fifth ahead of the Campos Racing Chevrolet duo of Hugo Valente (who familiarised himself with the circuit by taking part in last weekend's TCR races) and John Filippi.

Jose Maria Lopez, who is likely to wrap up his second WTCC title this weekend, led the slower first practice session and much of the second but was pushed back to eighth by the late improvements of others.

Lapierre caused an early end to first practice when he found the tyre barrier at Turn 3, but the Lada mechanics were able to get him back out before the end of the second session.

The later session enabled the drivers to sample the twilight conditions in which race two will take place on Sunday, when qualifying and the two races will be held on the same day.

TEST SESSION:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1m38.260s - 12
2 Nicolas Lapierre LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m38.408s 0.148s 13
3 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m38.855s 0.595s 12
4 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m38.956s 0.696s 12
5 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m38.970s 0.710s 14
6 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m38.980s 0.720s 12
7 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m39.060s 0.800s 12
8 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1m39.119s 0.859s 14
9 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.515s 1.255s 13
10 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.547s 1.287s 12
11 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m39.815s 1.555s 11
12 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m39.959s 1.699s 13
13 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m40.142s 1.882s 12
14 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m40.593s 2.333s 14
15 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m40.616s 2.356s 11
16 Tin Sritrai Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m40.762s 2.502s 14
17 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet 1m40.806s 2.546s 13
18 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1m40.878s 2.618s 13

PRACTICE ONE:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m40.074s - 9
2 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1m40.373s 0.299s 12
3 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m40.623s 0.549s 9
4 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1m40.636s 0.562s 11
5 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m40.886s 0.812s 9
6 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m40.986s 0.912s 10
7 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m41.105s 1.031s 9
8 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m41.223s 1.149s 7
9 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m41.513s 1.439s 10
10 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m41.529s 1.455s 11
11 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m41.634s 1.560s 9
12 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1m41.942s 1.868s 11
13 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m41.967s 1.893s 10
14 Nicolas Lapierre LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m42.057s 1.983s 9
15 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m43.151s 3.077s 7
16 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet 1m42.354s 2.280s 11
17 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m42.355s 2.281s 9
18 Tin Sritrai Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m42.503s 2.429s 10

PRACTICE TWO:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m38.881s - 12
2 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m38.959s 0.078s 12
3 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1m39.013s 0.132s 14
4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m39.058s 0.177s 11
5 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1m39.249s 0.368s 14
6 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m39.341s 0.460s 12
7 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m39.346s 0.465s 11
8 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.398s 0.517s 11
9 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.463s 0.582s 13
10 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet 1m39.523s 0.642s 10
11 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.682s 0.801s 13
12 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m39.761s 0.880s 15
13 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m39.975s 1.094s 12
14 Nicolas Lapierre LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m39.990s 1.109s 3
15 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m40.135s 1.254s 14
16 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1m40.147s 1.266s 14
17 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m40.183s 1.302s 15
18 Tin Sritrai Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m40.712s 1.831s 12

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