Vila Real WTCC: Lopez quickest in final practice

The championship leader showed more pace in this session than he’d shown all weekend so far, despite stating he was suffering with understeer.

Michelisz’s best lap was three-tenths of a second behind Lopez, with Monteiro exactly half a second off the pace.

Yvan Muller ended up fourth for Citroen despite missing the majority of the session after damaging the left-rear suspension on his C-Elysee WTCC early on.

The Frenchman managed to get one lap in at the end of the session to move up to fourth ahead of FP1 pace-setter Rob Huff, who was then also outpaced by the Polestar Volvo of Thed Bjork, with the Swede also setting the fastest second sector in his S60.

Tom Coronel was the fastest of both the independent and the Chevrolet drivers, setting the seventh-quickest time in his ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet, whose mechanical issue from FP1 transpired to be the removal of a wing mirror.

Nicky Catsburg was the fastest of the Lada contingent in eighth, with Mehdi Bennani ninth for Sebastien Loeb Racing and Munnich Motorsport’s James Thompson completing the top ten.

Gabriele Tarquini completed just an outlap and an inlap in his Lada Vesta due to an unidentified technical issue, while Zengo Motorsport's Daniel Nagy was forced to skip the session due to ongoing issues with his new Honda engine installation.

It means the 18-year-old Hungarian heads into qualifying not even having completed a full lap at speed around the Vila Real circuit.

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes