Hungaroring WTCC: Tarquini heads Honda trio in test
Gabriele Tarquini headed an all-Honda top three in the pre-race World Touring Car Championship test at the Hungaroring
The Italian factory driver led the Proteam Civic of Mehdi Bennani by 0.061 seconds at the end of Friday's half-hour curtain-raiser.
Tarquini's team-mate Tiago Monteiro was third, while ROAL Chevrolet driver Tom Chilton prevented a Honda top four sweep by keeping local hero Norbert Michelisz's Zengo Civic back in fifth.
The all-conquering Citroen team had a quiet start to the weekend. Jose Maria Lopez and Yvan Muller both appeared in first place for spells early on before ending up sixth and eighth respectively, with their team-mate Sebastien Loeb ninth.
Rob Huff was Lada's top representative in 10th.
Tom Coronel returned to the series in his rebuilt ROAL Chevrolet after the Marrakech startline crash that ruled him out of the subsequent Paul Ricard round. He was 13th fastest after a nine-lap shakedown for the car.
Franz Engstler topped the TC1 contingent, which has increased to four cars in Hungary with the addition of returnee Yukinori Taniguchi in a Nika-run Honda, although the Campos SEAT of John Filippi did not set a time on Friday.
Follow WTCC qualifying and both races as they happen on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live this weekend
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1. Gabriele Tarquini Honda 1m50.995s 15 2. Mehdi Bennani Proteam Honda 1m51.064s +0.069s 14 3. Tiago Monteiro Honda 1m51.276s +0.281s 11 4. Tom Chilton ROAL Chevrolet 1m51.349s +0.354s 10 5. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda 1m51.433s +0.438s 13 6. Jose Maria Lopez Citroen 1m51.453s +0.458s 10 7. Hugo Valente Campos Chevrolet 1m51.589s +0.594s 12 8. Yvan Muller Citroen 1m51.738s +0.743s 10 9. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1m51.789s +0.794s 10 10. Rob Huff Lada 1m51.851s +0.856s 11 11. Gianni Morbidelli Munnich Chevrolet 1m52.172s +1.177s 11 12. Rene Munnich Munnich Chevrolet 1m52.885s +1.890s 13 13. Tom Coronel ROML Chevrolet 1m53.181s +2.186s 9 14. James Thompson Lada 1m53.270s +2.275s 12 15. Dusan Borkovic Campos Chevrolet 1m54.209s +3.214s 11 16. Mikhail Kozlowskiy Lada 1m55.526s +4.531s 11 17. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW* 1m56.792s +5.797s 13 18. Pasquale di Sabatino Engstler BMW* 1m58.334s +7.339s 12 19. Yukinori Taniguchi Nika Honda* 2m01.504s +10.509s 10
* TC2
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