Norbert Michelisz

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Fredrik Ekblom marked his return to the FIA World Touring Car Championship in style with the fastest time in Free Practice 2 at WTCC Race of China.

Driving a Volvo S60 Polestar TC1, Ekblom clocked a best lap of 1m51.400s around the 4.603-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit, which compared favourably to the 1m51.999s effort from his team-mate Thed Björk in Free Practice 1 earlier this morning.

“We learned quite a few things,” said Ekblom, whose last WTCC race outing was in Russia in early June. “We tried some new stuff on the car but above all we had some better tyres for my sake and that made difference. I don’t have a lot of experience on this track but the car felt good, it was quick on the straight, it turns good and the traction is okay. Also, it’s quite warm so the long straight is a good time to relax a little bit.”

WTCC Trophy contender John Filippi had been on course to top the session in his Campos Racing Chevrolet before Ekblom’s late effort demoted him to second. Björk continued Polestar Cyan Racing’s strong start to its ‘home’ event in third with Mehdi Bennani fourth, Tom Coronel fifth, Tiago Monteiro sixth for Honda, Tom Chilton seventh and Norbert Michelisz eighth.

Gabriele Tarquini was the fastest of the works LADA driver in ninth with world champion José María López P10 for Citroën.

Source: FIA WTCC

Results of FP2: