Photo: WTCC Media

Tiago Monteiro tops second free practice in Qatar

Honda’s Tiago Monteiro led a Honda 1-2 in the second free practice session held under the floodlights at the Losail circuit in Qatar, finishing just under a tenth of a second faster than team-mate Norbert Michelisz, while Lada’s Hugo Valente followed up on his earlier practice form to finish third.

Valente threw down the gauntlet with a time of 2:03.413 which was quickly beaten by Michelisz, who went three-tenths of a second faster in his factory Honda Civic, while Tiago Monteiro hit one of the new tyre stacks on his first run and was forced to return to the pits for repairs.

Rob Huff was the next to improve on Michelisz’s time, bringing the times into the 2:02s. Hugo Valente went faster still as the track conditions improved, before the red flag was waved after ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel was forced to stop his Chevrolet Cruze on track after the front-left wheel came loose and rolled across the circuit.

This gave Honda the opportunity to continue repairs on Monteiro’s car, and for the marshals to replace the tyre stack.

After the session resumed and with ten minutes to go, Ferenc Ficza went fastest in the Zengő Honda, before Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani took the position, with the times now down in the low 2:00s.

A flurry of improvements followed, with Rob Huff briefly taking the top spot, before López snatched it back with five minutes to go with a time in the low 2:02s. However, the next laps were all in the 2:01s, with Monteiro going fastest ahead of Michelisz and Valente, pushing López, who’d topped the earlier practice session, down to fourth.

Gabriele Tarquini was fifth fastest for Lada ahead of Honda’s Rob Huff, while Daniel Nagy would emerge as the fastest of the independent drivers for Zengő in seventh, ahead of SLR Citroën’s Mehdi Bennani, Zengő team-mate Ferenc Ficza, and with the Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet completing the top ten.

Yvan Muller was outside of the top ten in 11th, 1.3 seconds off the pace, while both of the Volvos, which were third and fourth in the first practice, went backwards in the second session, ending up 13th and 14th.

The next track action is qualifying, which takes place at 14:30 AST (GMT+3) tomorrow.