Johan Kristoffersson leads final practice at Vila Real
Sébastien Loeb Racing driver Johan Kristoffersson was fastest of all in the final practice session at Vila Real, jumping ahead in his Volkswagen to the top of the time sheets in the final minute.
Kristoffersson set his best time of 2:00.110, at that point jumping ahead of the two Lynk & Co 03 TCRs of Yann Ehrlacher and Thed Björk, while BRC Racing Team’s Norbert Michelisz leapt up to second at the finish in his i30 N TCR.
Rob Huff finished fifth, although the Briton was set for improvement before his final lap was marked for deletion by the officials for exceeding track limits.
Aurélien Panis finished sixth and was the best of the Cupra drivers by some way, with Mehdi Bennani seventh in his SLR Volkswagen.
Championship leader Esteban Guerrieri was eighth and was the fastest of the Hondas ahead of Nicky Catsburg, with the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo of Ma Qing Hua completing the top ten.
The session was red-flagged at the halfway mark when the two Cupras of Tom Coronel and Mikel Azcona came together, with Azcona launching up the inside of Coronel’s Cupra while he was on his out lap, and breaking the Dutch driver’s rear suspension.
As Coronel tried to recover the car to the pits, the tyre eventually caught fire, with Coronel stopping on circuit and causing the red flag.
Qualifying for Race 1 follows at 11:00 WEST/BST (12:00 CEST).
