By alley - Jun 25, 2016, 7:31 AM ET

WTCC: Lopez fastest at Vila Real street track

Citroen's Jose Maria was fastest across Saturday's Vila Real World Touring Car Championship practice sessions, beating Honda's contingent in second practice after Rob Huff had set the earlier pace.

Lopez was overshadowed by the three Hondas in the opening session, finishing fourth and a second and a half down off the pace, but struck back in the second to set the fastest time of the weekend so far, a 1m56.365s.

That left the Argentinian 0.334s clear of Norbert Michelisz, who finished both sessions in second in his Civic.

Michelisz's teammate Tiago Monteiro backed up his third-fastest time in the first session with the same result in second practice, the Portuguese 0.150s behind his team-mate at his home venue.

Yvan Muller in the second factory Citroen and Polestar's Thed Bjork separated Huff in the third Honda from his team-mates.

Huff led a Honda 1-2-3 in Saturday morning's first session, but was quieter in the second and finished the best part of a second down on Lopez's benchmark, four tenths slower than his practice one pace.

Tom Coronel was seventh in the second session and best of the independent drivers ahead of the leading Lada of Nicky Catsburg.

Catsburg's team-mate Hugo Valente was a strong fifth in the first session, but finished a second back from him in the second in 12th, with Mehdi Bennani, James Thompson (making his fourth appearance of the season for Munnich Motorsport) and Tom Chilton separating the pair.

Zengo Motorsport's debutant Daniel Nagy completed his first laps in the WTCC in the first session, but sat out the second with a suspected throttle sensor issue.

PRACTICE ONE

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m56.941ss	1m56.941s	13
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m57.188ss	0.247s	11
3	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m57.405ss	0.464s	11
4	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1m58.436ss	1.495s	12
5	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	1m58.507ss	1.566s	10
6	Yvan Muller	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1m58.639ss	1.698s	13
7	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	1m59.103ss	2.162s	10
8	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m59.330ss	2.389s	10
9	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m59.427ss	2.486s	11
10	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1m59.651ss	2.710s	11
11	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m00.305ss	3.364s	11
12	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2m00.415ss	3.474s	11
13	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m00.488ss	3.547s	12
14	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2m00.623ss	3.682s	10
15	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	2m00.680ss	3.739s	10
16	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2m01.942ss	5.001s	11
17	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m02.183ss	5.242s	13
18	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	-	-	2

PRACTICE TWO

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1m56.365ss	1m56.365s	10
2	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m56.699ss	0.334s	12
3	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m56.865ss	0.500s	13
4	Yvan Muller	Citroen Racing	Citroen	1m56.926ss	0.561s	6
5	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	1m57.061ss	0.696s	11
6	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1m57.340ss	0.975s	11
7	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m58.069ss	1.704s	11
8	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport	Lada	1m58.264ss	1.899s	11
9	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m58.271ss	1.906s	12
10	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1m58.455ss	2.090s	11
11	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1m58.613ss	2.248s	11
12	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport	Lada	1m59.312ss	2.947s	9
13	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	2m00.049ss	3.684s	12
14	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2m00.055ss	3.690s	10
15	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2m00.935ss	4.570s	7
16	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2m01.416ss	5.051s	12
17	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport	Lada	-	-	1
18	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	-	-	0