Having suffered a troubled event at round one of the championship earlier this month, Solberg has hit round two in style, fastest in both of the first two heats.

Solberg was lucky though, as he crossed the finish line at the end of his second race, the left rear wheel parted company with his Citroen DS3 Supercar, bouncing down the circuit narrowly avoided by the following Timur Timerzyanov.

“I’m happy” Said Solberg. “Everything is going much better than it did at Lydden Hill. The [incident] wheel was really lucky.”

Fastest twice in Super1600 was young rising star Kevin Eriksson, who sits on top of the table ahead of round one winner Ulrik Linnemann.

Round one TouringCar winner Derek Tohill has had a troubled first day in Portugal. Failing to finish the first heat with fuel pressure issues, before setting sixth fastest time in the slippery conditions in heat two.