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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