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Practice report

Shanghai WTCC: Ekblom keeps Volvo on top in FP2

Polestar Volvo’s Fredrik Ekblom topped the time sheets in the second free practice session at Shanghai, leading Campos Chevrolet driver John Filippi by almost half a second, with teammate Thed Bjork completing the top three.

Fredrik Ekblom, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

Fredrik Ekblom, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

FIA WTCC

After Bjork had led the way in FP1, it was Ekblom’s turn on his WTCC return to take over in the second session, with the Volvo driver leading teammate Bjork during the early stages of second practice.

Just after the half-way mark, first Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, then Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen driver Mehdi Bennani jumped to the fore in the 30-minute session, with Bennani beating Bjork's time from FP1.

With just under ten minutes to go, Filippi then went fastest of all in his Chevrolet RML Cruze on new tyres, before Ekblom also on fresh tyres went quicker then the young Corsican's time with a lap of 1m51.400s.

Meanwhile, Teammate Bjork moving up to third position, with all of the top three drivers in the session in cars which are carrying no compensation weight this weekend.

“We learned quite a few things (between FP1 and FP2),” said Ekblom. “We tried some new things on the car and I had better tyres in Free Practice 2. I don’t have a lot of experience on this track, but my car felt good.”

Bennani was the top Citroen, with the French cars again carrying the maximum penalty of 80kg of weight this weekend, with Tom Coronel fifth fastest in his ballast-free ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet.

The fastest of the Hondas was Monteiro in sixth, ahead of the privateer Citroen of Tom Chilton, with Norbert Michelisz (Honda), Gabriele Tarquini (Lada) and champion elect Jose Maria Lopez (Citroen) rounding out the top ten.

Notable names outside of the top ten included Citroen's Yvan Muller, with the Frenchman ending up 13th fastest, with Honda's Rob Huff 14th fastest, both drivers around 1.5 seconds from Ekblom's pace, perhaps hiding their true performance ahead of qualifying.

FP2 results:

PosDriverCarLapsTimeGap
1 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo 9 1'51.400  
2 John Filippi Chevrolet 10 1'51.867 0.467
3 Thed Björk Volvo 10 1'51.924 0.524
4 Mehdi Bennani Citroën 11 1'51.956 0.556
5 Tom Coronel Chevrolet 11 1'52.257 0.857
6 Tiago Monteiro Honda 12 1'52.298 0.898
7 Tom Chilton Citroën 11 1'52.420 1.020
8 Norbert Michelisz Honda 12 1'52.486 1.086
9 Gabriele Tarquini LADA 11 1'52.498 1.098
10 Jose Maria Lopez Citroën 9 1'52.604 1.204
11 Nicky Catsburg LADA 11 1'52.606 1.206
12 James Thompson Chevrolet 7 1'52.817 1.417
13 Yvan Muller Citroën 10 1'52.827 1.427
14 Rob Huff Honda 11 1'52.955 1.555
15 Hugo Valente LADA 10 1'53.754 2.354
16 Grégoire Demoustier Citroën 12 1'53.828 2.428
17 Ferenc Ficza Honda 13 1'54.239 2.839
18 Daniel Nagy Honda 10 1'55.804 4.404

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

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