Photo: WTCC Media

Gabriele Tarquini tops FP2 in Spain

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Gabriele Tarquini set the fastest time in the second free practice session in Valencia for the Lukoil Racing SEAT team ahead of the Chevrolet pair of Rob Huff and Yvan Muller.

Tom Coronel’s ROAL Motorsport BMW sat on top of the time sheets for much of the session until Rob Huff improved to go fastest with just under five minutes to go. He was soon outperformed by Tarquini, whom went just nine-thousandths of a second faster than the Chevrolet driver.

Tarquini’s team-mate Aleksei Dudukalo finished as the top independent driver in sixth, just ahead of Norbert Michelisz’s Zengõ Motorsport BMW and Darryl O’Young’s STR SEAT León WTCC.

Charles Ng was unable to set any laps after going off into the gravel at Turn 5 on his first flying lap. The Hong Kong driver was also black flagged after he attempted to rejoin the session after receiving outside assistance.

Mehdi Bennani’s session also ended early, with the Moroccan driver’s Proteam BMW going off at Turn 11 after ten minutes.

Several drivers were warned for cutting the apex at Turn 1, including Tom Chilton, Alain Menu, Franz Engstler, Tom Boardman, Darryl O’Young and Norbert Michelisz, though no drivers were removed from the session.

The two Arena Fords of James Nash and Tom Chilton were again mired in the mid-field, with James Nash again just one spot ahead of Tom Chilton this time in 15th and 16th places respectively.

Qualifying for tomorrow’s races takes place at 14:00 CET.