Hungaroring WTCC: Gabriele Tarquini leads Honda practice one-two

The Japanese marque, which triumphed last weekend in Slovakia courtesy of Tarquini, was never off the top spot as Tarquini, Monteiro and the Zengo-run Civic of Norbert Michelisz dominated the opening session.

It was home favourite Michelisz who went fastest early on, but as the pace - led by Monteiro and Tarquini - improved, he dropped down the order.

A late rally lifted him to fourth, just behind championship leader Yvan Muller's RML Chevrolet.

Muller had threatened to disrupt Honda's hegemony at the halfway mark, but his best time was just over two tenths shy of Tarquini.

Fifth went to Hugo Valente, whose 2013 WTCC campaign begins this weekend with the Campos SEAT squad.

The Frenchman was less than one tenth of a second faster than SEAT stablemate Pepe Oriola, while his team-mate Fernando Monje ended the session 12th overall.

Slovakia reverse-grid winner Tom Coronel won the battle for seventh, narrowly edging out Rob Huff's Munnich SEAT and the Chevrolets of James Nash and Tom Chilton.

Several drivers, Tarquini among them, had lairy moments during the 30 minute session, while Engslter BMW driver Charles Ng was black flagged late on for repeated track limit transgressions.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                1m54.889s
 2.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                1m55.014s  + 0.125s
 3.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet        1m55.093s  + 0.204s
 4.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda          1m55.105s  + 0.216s
 5.  Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT          1m55.177s  + 0.288s
 6.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti SEAT          1m55.264s  + 0.375s
 7.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW             1m55.354s  + 0.465s
 8.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT         1m55.416s  + 0.527s
 9.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet     1m55.521s  + 0.632s
10.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet        1m55.588s  + 0.699s
11.  Medhi Bennani       Proteam BMW          1m55.595s  + 0.706s
12.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT          1m55.630s  + 0.741s
13.  Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet       1m55.689s  + 0.800s
14.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet     1m55.714s  + 0.825s
15.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW             1m55.928s  + 1.039s
16.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW               1m56.073s  + 1.184s
17.  Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT  1m56.176s  + 1.287s
18.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW         1m56.478s  + 1.589s
19.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT         1m56.630s  + 1.741s
20.  Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW         1m56.744s  + 1.855s
21.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW         1m56.898s  + 2.009s
22.  James Thompson      Lada                 1m57.239s  + 2.350s
23.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT         1m57.694s  + 2.805s
24.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                 1m58.204s  + 3.315s