Photo: WTCC Media

Alain Menu on top again in Salzburgring FP2

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Alain Menu left it to the last second to displace Yvan Muller for the fastest time in the second and final free practice session at the Salzburgring. The Swiss driver led a Chevrolet 1-2-3-4, with Pasquale Di Sabatino completing the top four for Bamboo Engineering.

The session was twice interrupted by red flags, first with Darryl O’Young crashing out at Turn 1, hitting the tyre stacks in the corner which saw his Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC take some front-end damage.

The second red flag came out soon after two separate incidents, both involving spins for BMWs. Gabor Wéber had spun out at the final corner in the Zengõ Motorsport BMW, and whilst that was being managed under yellow flags, Proteam’s Mehdi Bennani put a wheel on the grass at the fast Turn 9 corner, which spun his BMW 320 TC around and into the gravel trap, bringing out the red flag with just over ten minutes to go.

When the session restarted, Aleksei Dudukalo repeated Bennani’s error but thankfully not the outcome, as the Russian was able to slide the SEAT León WTCC back on to the track and continue but had to pit for new tyres.

The Salzburgring circuit is clearly favouring the Chevrolets however, with all three works drivers swapping times at the front, with Alain Menu just setting the best time on his final run to beat Yvan Muller, though he wasn’t faster than he was in FP1.

The works Chevrolets have also been joined by the two independent cars of Bamboo Engineering at the front, with Pasquale Di Sabatino setting his best timed session result of the season in fourth, and Alex MacDowall in the repaired Cruze 1.6 going sixth fastest, with only Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT able to separate the Chevrolets.

Di Sabatino was also the fastest independent driver, whilst the top BMW was that of Franz Engstler in ninth, with James Nash the fastest Ford driver in 11th.

The circuit is catching out many drivers, particularly Turn 1 which also saw Alberto Cerqui spin out late in the session and was recovered under yellows, and warnings for both Pepe Oriola and Gabriele Tarquini, as they made use of the escape road at Turn 1 on several occassions.

The qualifying session takes place at 15:45 CET.