WTCC Nordschleife: Michelisz survives puncture scare to top FP1

The Hungarian went quickest with an 8m43.255s and was set to improve on his last run in the 60-minute session before a puncture nearly sent him into the barriers.

At almost the same time, Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro - more than five seconds off the pace - stopped on circuit with a fuel pump issue while on a better lap.

He managed to bring his car back to the pits.

Michelisz headed Munnich Citroen driver Rob Huff by less than a second, with Sebastien Loeb Racing C-Elysees man Tom Chilton third by 2.3s off the pace.

Volvo's Nicky Catsburg put down the first competitive benchmark of 8m47.034s, a time that would ultimately be good enough for fourth.

An accident involving RC Motorsport Lada driver Yann Ehrlacher caused a 20-minute caution period.

The 20-year-old Frenchman crashed off soon after the Brunnchen corner after an apparent power steering failure with the Vesta WTCC, crashing hard into the barriers and limping away from the damaged car.

When the car was recovered and the yellows were withdrawn, Michelisz soon went fastest. He was almost eclipsed by Huff, who set his best lap despite running wide off circuit soon after making his way past the ETCC SEAT Leon of Andreas Pfister.

Huff, who had topped the morning's test with a time two seconds quicker than Michelisz's practice best, then suffered a tyre problem at the end of the session and slowly returned the pits.

"We're a world Championship, and we're seeing punctures left right and centre and it's not good enough," said Huff, after the Volvos of Catsburg and Thed Bjork also had failures.

"Yokohama have to do something about this."

The final practice session follows at 8.15am local time on Friday.

FIRST PRACTICE TIMES: