WTCC Qatar: Tiago Monteiro quickest in practice for season finale

Monteiro, who retains an outside chance of taking second in the championship from Citroen's Yvan Muller, set a best time of 2m01.476 seconds in his Honda Civic in the second half-hour practice session at the Losail Circuit.

The Portuguese's effort was around four tenths faster than last year's second practice benchmark time of 2m01.859s, set by Jose Maria Lopez.

Monteiro's Honda team-mate Norbert Michelisz jumped up to second near the end of the session, ending up just 0.064s slower in his Civic, while Lada's Hugo Valente was third-fastest.

World champion Lopez, who like his Citroen team will leave the WTCC after this weekend's final round of the season, was fourth-fastest ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, the third factory Honda of Rob Huff and the independent Zengo Motorsport car of Daniel Nagy.

Lopez had been fastest in the afternoon's first practice session, setting a best time of 2m02.182s in his C-Elysee to finish 0.621s faster than Valente.

In two sessions with little in the way of incidents to report, Daniel Nagy brought out a red flag in the first when he buried his Zengo Motorsport Honda Civic in the gravel at Turn 5.

The second was also stopped after ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel ground to a halt in his Chevrolet Cruze, his front-left wheel having come off.

PRACTICE ONE TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Racing	Citroen	2m02.182s	8
2	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	0.621s	12
3	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	0.867s	7
4	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	0.999s	10
5	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1.018s	10
6	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	1.137s	11
7	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1.204s	12
8	Yvan Muller	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1.435s	11
9	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1.505s	10
10	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1.528s	11
11	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1.537s	11
12	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1.650s	10
13	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1.695s	11
14	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2.194s	11
15	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2.329s	11
16	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2.846s	12
17	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2.936s	8
18	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	3.094s	10

PRACTICE TWO TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m01.476s	10
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	0.064s	10
3	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	0.318s	12
4	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Racing	Citroen	0.676s	10
5	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	0.693s	9
6	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	0.715s	12
7	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	0.942s	11
8	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	0.984s	12
9	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1.025s	11
10	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1.049s	12
11	Yvan Muller	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1.299s	9
12	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1.344s	11
13	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	1.509s	5
14	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	1.688s	10
15	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2.067s	10
16	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2.169s	9
17	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2.463s	13
18	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2.611s	4