Polestar showed promising speed ahead of its first full FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign with Thed Björk setting the pace in second practice for the WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of France.
With the track now dry after the wet start to the weekend, Björk went to the top of the times in the second half of the session with a lap of 1m30.069s.
First practice pace-setter Tiago Monteiro was second this time around for Honda, 0.348s down on Björk’s time. LADA drivers Nicky Catsburg and Gabriele Tarquini were close behind in third and fourth respectively.
The best of the Citroën drivers were down in fifth and sixth, with Yvan Muller leading José María López. Björk’s team-mate Fredrik Ekblom was seventh in the second of the Volvos in front of Norbert Michelisz for Honda.
Tom Coronel in ninth was the quickest of the RML Chevrolet Cruzes and best in the WTCC Trophy, ahead of his former team-mate-turned-Citroën driver Tom Chilton.
The first qualifying session of the 2016 WTCC season takes place at 14h00 local time.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thed Bjork | Polestar Cyan | Volvo | 1:30.069 |
| 2 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:30.417 |
| 3 | Nicky Catsburg | LADA Sport | Lada | 1:30.420 |
| 4 | Gabriele Tarquini | LADA Sport | Lada | 1:30.515 |
| 5 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:30.531 |
| 6 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:30.787 |
| 7 | Fredrik Ekblom | Polestar Cyan | Volvo | 1:30.945 |
| 8 | Norbert Michelisz | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:30.976 |
| 9 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:31.021 |
| 10 | Tom Chilton | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | 1:31.222 |
| 11 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | 1:31.255 |
| 12 | Rob Huff | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:31.307 |
| 13 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1:31.533 |
| 14 | Rene Munnich | Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:31.723 |
| 15 | Hugo Valente | LADA Sport | Lada | 1:31.731 |
| 16 | Grégoire Demoustier | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | 1:31.781 |
| 17 | Ferenc Ficza | Zengo | Honda | 1:38.551 |
| 18 | Daniel Nagy | Zengo | Honda | -:—.--- |