Gabriele Tarquini leads Honda 1-2 in first practice in Hungary
Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team’s Gabriele Tarquini was fastest of all, just less than a tenth of a second off the qualifying lap record at the Hungaroring, with team-mate Tiago Monteiro second quickest in the 30 minute session.
The session saw a Honda on P1 throughout with first Norbert Michelisz in the Zengõ Motorsport Honda setting the fastest time, before Tiago Monteiro took over in the #18 Civic, and then Tarquini just before the first 10 minutes were up.
Tarquini’s time of 1:54.889 was never bettered throughout the session, though a number of cars set better times in the first and second sectors, none could string together a full lap that could depose the Italian.
RML’s Yvan Muller was third fastest in the Chevrolet Cruze, with local hero Norbert Michelisz fourth fastest just two-tenths of a second down.
The fastest Yokohama Trophy driver was newcomer Hugo Valente. The 20-year-old has joined the Campos Racing team in what’s only his second race in the World Touring Car Championship after competing at Shanghai last year.
Valente was just ahead of team-mate Pepe Oriola, with Tom Coronel the fastest BMW driver in seventh, with Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff, bamboo-engineering’s James Nash and RML’s Tom Chilton completing the top ten.
The Ladas struggled for pace at the Hungarian circuit, with James Thompson 22nd fastest and Mikhail Kozlovskiy 24th and last in the second Granta WTCC car.
Kozlovskiy was also warned for exceeding the track limits on several occasions, whilst Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Charles Ng was black flagged for also leaving the track on too many occasions.
The second free practice session takes place at 11:45 CET.
