Nurburgring WTCC: Catsburg breaks lap record in FP2
Volvo driver Nicky Catsburg broke the WTCC lap record at the Nurburgring in the second practice session on Friday, lapping the legendary circuit in 8m34.813s.
Photo by: FIA WTCC
The Dutchman set his time after the chequered flag fell on his final run, demoting Honda’s Norbert Michelisz, who had only just gone fastest with a time of 8m37.201s, to second place.
Michelisz, in turn, outpaced the Munnich Citroen of Rob Huff, who’d been on the top of the timesheets for most of the last half hour of the session.
Catsburg had set the first benchmark early in the session, with no further improvements possible until the half-way point while the ETCC Audi of Plamen Kralev was rescued after stopping at the exit of Schwalbenschwanz.
Behind Catsburg, Michelisz and Huff was Volvo’s Thed Bjork in fourth, with Esteban Guerrieri fifth fastest after setting a competitive lap in the Campos Racing Chevrolet.
Championship leader Tiago Monteiro (Honda) was a conservative sixth, with Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton seventh, personally delighted with his time set on old tyres in the Citroen.
Nestor Girolami was eighth fastest in the third Volvo ahead of Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet, with the SLR Citroen of Mehdi Bennani completing the top 10.
Unlike Thursday, there were no signs of punctures during the 60-minute session. The only drama was traffic, with a number of WTCC drivers getting caught behind some of the TCR-specification ETCC cars at awkward points on their quickest laps.
Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes
Practice 2 Results:
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nicky Catsburg | Volvo | 8'34.813 | |
2 | Norbert Michelisz | Honda | 8'37.201 | 2.388 |
3 | Rob Huff | Citroën | 8'39.328 | 4.515 |
4 | Thed Björk | Volvo | 8'41.396 | 6.583 |
5 | Esteban Guerrieri | Chevrolet | 8'42.232 | 7.419 |
6 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda | 8'42.586 | 7.773 |
7 | Tom Chilton | Citroën | 8'42.855 | 8.042 |
8 | Nestor Girolami | Volvo | 8'44.705 | 9.892 |
9 | Tom Coronel | Chevrolet | 8'44.841 | 10.028 |
10 | Mehdi Bennani | Citroën | 8'45.322 | 10.509 |
11 | John Filippi | Citroën | 8'45.671 | 10.858 |
12 | Kevin Gleason | LADA | 8'48.987 | 14.174 |
13 | Ryo Michigami | Honda | 8'49.506 | 14.693 |
14 | Daniel Nagy | Honda | 8'54.326 | 19.513 |
15 | Aurelien Panis | Honda | 8'55.079 | 20.266 |
16 | Yann Ehrlacher | LADA | 9'14.620 | 39.807 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments