Moscow WTCC: Yvan Muller back ahead as Chevrolets dominate
Yvan Muller led a Chevrolet top-three lockout in the second and final World Touring Car practice at Moscow Raceway
The Frenchman jumped to the top of the timesheets with a new weekend best of 1m43.267s with 10 minutes of the session to run.
RML team-mate Tom Chilton was on his own flyer and followed Muller across the line almost immediately, but missed out on demoting him by just 42 hundredths of a second.
Chilton's lap did at least move him ahead of Michel Nykjaer in the Nika-run Chevrolet. Nykjaer's first flyer - a 1m43.562s - was best early on and remained good enough for third as the chequered flag flew.
Behind the three Chevrolets, defending champion Rob Huff beat practice one pacesetter Tom Coronel and Munnich SEAT stable-mate Marc Basseng to fourth.
Proteam's Mehdi Bennani and PB Racing's Stefano D'Aste backed up BMW's strong early form at Moscow by snatching seventh and eighth, although D'Aste - who hit the barriers in first practice - was one of several drivers to have a moment in the middle sector during the 30 minutes.
Huff also got caught out late on when his right rear drifted onto the grass approaching Turn 10, although he made an excellent recovery to save the spin and instead drift sideways around the corner.
Gabriele Tarquini meanwhile ended as Honda's top driver in ninth. Works team-mate Tiago Monteiro, 12th overall, ended the session in the pitlane after a water pump failure.
James Thompson earned Lada representation in the top 10 as the last man to get within one second of Muller.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet 1m43.267s 12 2. Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet 1m43.309s + 0.042s 13 3. Michel Nykjaer Nika Chevrolet 1m43.562s + 0.295s 15 4. Rob Huff Munnich SEAT 1m43.805s + 0.538s 11 5. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 1m43.837s + 0.570s 15 6. Marc Basseng Munnich SEAT 1m43.890s + 0.623s 16 7. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 1m43.913s + 0.646s 15 8. Stefano D'Aste PB BMW 1m44.186s + 0.919s 16 9. Gabriele Tarquini Honda 1m44.202s + 0.935s 15 10. James Thompson Lada 1m44.257s + 0.990s 14 11. Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT 1m44.287s + 1.020s 13 12. Tiago Monteiro Honda 1m44.307s + 1.040s 7 13. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 1m44.415s + 1.148s 15 14. Fernando Monje Campos SEAT 1m44.425s + 1.158s 13 15. Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet 1m44.460s + 1.193s 13 16. Darryl O'Young ROAL BMW 1m44.576s + 1.309s 15 17. James Nash Bamboo Chevrolet 1m44.622s + 1.355s 10 18. Nikolai Karamyshev Campos SEAT 1m44.663s + 1.396s 14 19. Charles Ng Engstler BMW 1m44.760s + 1.493s 16 20. Fredy Barth Wiechers BMW 1m44.762s + 1.495s 16 21. Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lada 1m44.816s + 1.549s 13 22. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda 1m44.885s + 1.618s 14 23. Rene Munnich Munnich SEAT 1m45.183s + 1.916s 14
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