By alley - Apr 16, 2016, 7:01 AM ET

WTCC: Volvo and Lada lead practice

Polestar Volvo's Fredrik Ekblom and Lada's Nicky Catsburg set the pace in World Touring Car Championship practice at the Slovakia Ring.

Swede Ekblom produced the fastest time in either of the two sessions in Saturday morning's first practice, leading a Polestar one-two with a best time of 2m05.420s in his Volvo S60 to eclipse team-mate Thed Bjork by 0.313 seconds.

Catsburg was third-fastest, just 0.030s behind Bjork and ahead of teammate Gabriele Tarquini, but came to a halt in his Lada Vesta out on track towards the end of the session. The Dutchman bounced back in the second session though, posting his fastest time of the day to top the practice two timesheets.

Catsburg's 2m05.581s was a tenth-and-a-half slower than Ekblom's pace from first practice but was enough for him to leapfrog both of the Polestar drivers towards the end of the second session, with Bjork second once again, ahead of Ekblom.

Norbert Michelisz was fifth and the leading Honda in first practice and followed that up with the fourth-fastest time in the second session, ahead of the returning James Thompson - who was an impressive fifth in his Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze.

As had been the case a day earlier in Friday's testing session, Citroen's contingent were well down the pecking order.

Tom Chilton in his satellite Citroen C-Elysee registered the best placing for any of the marque's cars with eighth in second practice, while world champion Jose Maria Lopez was ninth in the first session before finishing the second in 12th.

Chilton's Sebastien Loeb Racing team-mates Mehdi Bennani and Gregoire Demoustier propped up the timesheets on both occasions.

PRACTICE ONE TIMES

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Fredrik Ekblom	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m05.420ss	2m05.420s	9
2	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m05.733ss	0.313s	12
3	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m05.763ss	0.343s	9
4	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m06.043ss	0.623s	9
5	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m06.172ss	0.752s	10
6	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m06.357ss	0.937s	9
7	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m06.603ss	1.183s	11
8	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m06.750ss	1.330s	10
9	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2m06.814ss	1.394s	11
10	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m06.863ss	1.443s	10
11	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2m07.295ss	1.875s	11
12	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2m07.365ss	1.945s	11
13	James Thompson	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m07.509ss	2.089s	11
14	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m07.693ss	2.273s	9
15	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2m07.923ss	2.503s	12
16	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m08.015ss	2.595s	12
17	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m08.056ss	2.636s	12

PRACTICE TWO TIMES

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m05.581ss	2m05.581s	10
2	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m05.885ss	0.304s	9
3	Fredrik Ekblom	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m06.596ss	1.015s	11
4	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m06.605ss	1.024s	10
5	James Thompson	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m06.712ss	1.131s	11
6	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m06.820ss	1.239s	10
7	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m06.914ss	1.333s	11
8	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m07.263ss	1.682s	10
9	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2m07.551ss	1.970s	8
10	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2m07.557ss	1.976s	9
11	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2m07.705ss	2.124s	12
12	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2m07.814ss	2.233s	9
13	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2m07.930ss	2.349s	10
14	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2m07.941ss	2.360s	9
15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m07.971ss	2.390s	5
16	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m08.200ss	2.619s	12
17	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m09.862ss	4.281s	11