Photo: WTCC Media

Tarquini tops Free Practice 2 at the Hungaroring

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Gabriele Tarquini left it to the last second to set the best lap of the day at the Hungaroring in his SEAT León WTCC, dropping the Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Rob Huff to second and third.

Yvan Muller was the pace setter early on in the session with a time of 1:56.274, which wasn’t quicker than his pace in the first session. Muller was leading the way ahead of team-mate Alain Menu and the independent Bamboo Chevrolet of Alex MacDowall.

James Thompson jumped up to fourth in the Lada Granta Sport behind the three Chevrolets with a time of 1:56.705, but would later slide down the order and into ninth as others improved their times.

Darryl O’Young then went fastest of all just over half way through the session in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC, with team-mate Tom Boardman also briefly appearing in the top ten in the SEAT León TDI, before Muller and Huff improved later in the session to go faster still, with Muller breaking his own lap record set in FP1 with a 1:55.313.

Passing the start/finish line just before the chequered flag, Tarquini had one last chance to improve and set the best first and second sectors in the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT, and then went on to go faster than Muller by 0.026s.

Gábor Wéber, Tom Coronel, Mehdi Bennani and Tom Boardman were all warned for exceeding the track limits in the session, with Tarquini losing one of his times as he improved after cutting Turn 4.

The two Fords of James Nash and Tom Chilton struggled in the session and ended up 21st and 22nd fastest, with Nash joining the session late and setting the least laps.

Qualifying will take place at 14:00 CET.