By alley - Oct 31, 2015, 3:31 AM ET

Michelisz sets WTCC pace in Thailand

Honda driver Norbert Michelisz posted the fastest time of testing and practice on Saturday ahead of the first ever World Touring Car Championship races in Thailand at the Buriram circuit. The Hungarian topped the test session in the morning, and his 1m38.260s lap remained unbeaten during the two practice sessions held at the end of the day.

Michelisz was 0.148 seconds ahead of Lada driver Nicolas Lapierre, with Sebastien Loeb over half a second back in the quickest Citroen in third.

Tom Chilton ended the day fourth fastest after leading second practice with a 1m38.881s lap set with just over five minutes remaining.

Gabriele Tarquini took second place in the session with a deficit of 0.078s to the British Chevrolet racer, and led fellow Honda drivers Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro.

Mehdi Bennani was the top Citroen in fifth ahead of the Campos Racing Chevrolet duo of Hugo Valente (who familiarised himself with the circuit by taking part in last weekend's TCR races) and John Filippi.

Jose Maria Lopez, who is likely to wrap up his second WTCC title this weekend, led the slower first practice session and much of the second but was pushed back to eighth by the late improvements of others.

Lapierre caused an early end to first practice when he found the tyre barrier at Turn 3, but the Lada mechanics were able to get him back out before the end of the second session.

The later session enabled the drivers to sample the twilight conditions in which race two will take place on Sunday, when qualifying and the two races will be held on the same day.

TEST SESSION:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1m38.260ss	1m38.260s	12
2	Nicolas Lapierre	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m38.408ss	0.148s	13
3	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m38.855ss	0.595s	12
4	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m38.956ss	0.696s	12
5	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m38.970ss	0.710s	14
6	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m38.980ss	0.720s	12
7	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m39.060ss	0.800s	12
8	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m39.119ss	0.859s	14
9	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m39.515ss	1.255s	13
10	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m39.547ss	1.287s	12
11	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m39.815ss	1.555s	11
12	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m39.959ss	1.699s	13
13	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m40.142ss	1.882s	12
14	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m40.593ss	2.333s	14
15	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m40.616ss	2.356s	11
16	Tin Sritrai	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m40.762ss	2.502s	14
17	Gregoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1m40.806ss	2.546s	13
18	Stefano D'Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m40.878ss	2.618s	13

PRACTICE ONE:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m40.074ss	1m40.074s	9
2	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m40.373ss	0.299s	12
3	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m40.623ss	0.549s	9
4	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1m40.636ss	0.562s	11
5	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m40.886ss	0.812s	9
6	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m40.986ss	0.912s	10
7	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m41.105ss	1.031s	9
8	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m41.223ss	1.149s	7
9	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m41.513ss	1.439s	10
10	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m41.529ss	1.455s	11
11	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1m41.634ss	1.560s	9
12	Stefano D'Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m41.942ss	1.868s	11
13	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m41.967ss	1.893s	10
14	Nicolas Lapierre	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1m42.057ss	1.983s	9
15	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m43.151ss	3.077s	7
16	Gregoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1m42.354ss	2.280s	11
17	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m42.355ss	2.281s	9
18	Tin Sritrai	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1m42.503ss	2.429s	10