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Gabriele Tarquini leads Valencia World Touring Car practice two

Lukoil Racing's Gabriele Tarquini topped Valencia's final World Touring Car Championship practice session prior to qualifying

The Italian's time of 1m43.834s in his SEAT was 0.8 seconds slower than the fastest time from free practice one - recorded by reigning champion Yvan Muller's factory Chevrolet Cruze.

Briton Rob Huff had the honour of being the fastest works RML Chevy runner in free practice two. Huff knocked ROAL BMW driver Tom Coronel from his position at the head of the timing screens with a little under a third of the half hour session remaining.

But Tarquini would have the final word, shaving 0.009s from Huff's time to seal the top spot with less than two minutes left on the clocks. A late effort from Muller hauled the Frenchman from ninth into an eventual third place ahead of Coronel.

The third RML Cruze of Alain Menu had a nervous oversteer moment, after locking his inside rear tyre, on the way to fifth, while Tarquini's Lukoil Racing team-mate Aleksei Dudukalo ended the session in sixth position.

Special Tuning's Darryl O'Young non-started both races at Monza owing to an engine fire, but indicated that all was now well with his SEAT Sport-powered Leon to claim an encouraging eighth in this session.

WTCC newcomer Arena Ford continued development work on its Focus S2000 TC racers. The Fords were 15th and 16th on the timesheets, James Nash heading Tom Chilton, who suffered a quick spin.

Proteam BMW's Mehdi Bennani joined Chilton in exploring the limits of the Ricardo Tormo circuit, the Moroccan ending his session in the sand. Team Engstler's Charles Ng also rotated, and was later black-flagged for rejoining the action after receiving assistance in extricating his car from the gravel.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT          1m43.834s
 2.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet            1m43.843s  + 0.009s
 3.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet            1m43.931s  + 0.097s
 4.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW             1m43.934s  + 0.100s
 5.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet            1m43.981s  + 0.147s
 6.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT          1m44.030s  + 0.196s
 7.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW            1m44.037s  + 0.203s
 8.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT  1m44.239s  + 0.405s
 9.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT          1m44.453s  + 0.619s
10.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT          1m44.491s  + 0.657s
11.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         1m44.853s  + 1.019s
12.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW             1m44.859s  + 1.025s
13.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT  1m44.894s  + 1.060s
14.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet     1m44.952s  + 1.118s
15.  James Nash            Arena Ford           1m45.009s  + 1.175s
16.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford           1m45.020s  + 1.186s
17.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW         1m45.032s  + 1.198s
18.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW          1m45.067s  + 1.233s
19.  Fernando Monje        SUNRED SEAT          1m45.689s  + 1.855s
20.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet     1m45.714s  + 1.880s
21.  Andrea Barlesi        SUNRED SEAT          1m45.734s  + 1.900s
22.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW            1m45.820s  + 1.986s
23.  Isaac Tutumlu         Proteam BMW          1m46.367s  + 2.533s
24.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW

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