Gianni Morbidelli leads the way in rain-hit session
Gianni Morbidelli bounced back from his earlier struggles to lead the second free practice session at Oschersleben, Germany. The WestCoast Racing driver led Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Sergey Afanasyev and Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay before rain hit Oschersleben with more than half of the session still to go.
Mat’o Homola had set the pace early in the session for B3 Racing, but several drivers improved their lap times since, with Afanasyev ending up in the lead ten minutes into the session. It was not long however until Morbidelli managed to jump into the lead, seconds before the rain started to fall.
Drops initally fell in the portion of the track from Turn 4 to 10, leaving the track half dry and forcing all drivers into the pits. As the rain continued, Morbidelli was the first to venture on the slippery track, which became more and more wet as the session went along. As obvious, lap times were significantly slower than before, leaving the standings unchanged until the end of the session.
Morbidelli led Afanasyev and Vernay, with Stefano Comini fourth in the other Leopard Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR. Dusan Borkovic finished fifth despite a couple of big slides at Turn 1, while James Nash ended up sixth for Craft-Bamboo Lukoil. Mat’o Homola was seventh ahead of Petr Fulìn, whose attempt to improve his already good lap time was stopped by the rain in a promising session for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR. Attila Tassi and Mikhail Grachev completed the podium, as Pepe Oriola was 12th in the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil SEAT.
Qualifying will start at 14:15 local time.
