Johan Kristoffersson posted a lap time of 2:00.110 in today’s practice session, making him the fastest World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) driver around the Vila Real street circuit so far this weekend.
The session was delayed midway through proceedings when there was a collision between two Cupra drivers. Tom Coronel shut the door on Mikel Azcona into Turn 8, and as such, suffered broken rear suspension. Unable to drag his car back to the pit lane, Coronel had no choice but to park on circuit, and so the red flags were brought out to ensure a safe recovery of his vehicle.
Once underway again, it wasn’t long before there was another casualty. Yvan Muller suffered a right-front puncture with 13 minutes left on the clock, which eventually brought his session to a premature end too.
However, Kristoffersson avoided incident and ended the session with a healthy gap of 0.357 seconds to the second fastest car; that of Norbert Michelisz.
Behind Michelisz, Yann Ehrlacher and Thed Bjork showed greatly improved pace in their Lynk & Co cars, while the top five was rounded out by Kristoffersson’s Volkswagen stablemate, Rob Huff.
Aurelien Panis continued to impress with sixth place in his Cupra, while the second fastest man from Practice One – Mehdi Bennani – wound up in seventh place this time round.
Esteban Guerrieri and Nicky Catsburg ended up eighth and ninth, while Ma Qing Hua did well to drag the Alfa Romeo into the top ten.
