Practice 2 - Farfus puts BMW on top

Augusto Farfus (1:56.765) finished top in the second free practice at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve today.

In the final minute, SR-Sport’s Tom Coronel (1:56.925) recorded his best time of the day so far to move up to second ahead of Rookie Challenge racer Michel Nykjær (1:56.938) in third. Nykjær had been leading until Farfus, then Coronel demoted him in the final minutes, but it was an impressive showing from the Danish newcomer.

Britain’s Rob Huff (1:56.979) was fourth ahead of Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro (1:57.048). Chevrolet teammates Yvan Muller (1:57.114) and Alain Menu (1:57.158) ended practice sixth and seventh respectively.

Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini’s (1:57.162) best lap was good enough for eighth while Hungarian rookie Norbert Michelisz (1:57.260) was ninth for his Zengö-Dension Team, just 0.495s adrift of Farfus’ time.

Colin Turkington (1:57.326) finished inside the top ten yet again as top Independent but the bamboo-engineering cars of Harry Vaulkhard (1:57.346) and Darryl O’Young (1:57.419) closed the gap in the category finishing 12th and 13th, just 0.020s off Turkington.

Franz Engstler only completed five flying laps before stopping his BMW 320si out on track due to drive shaft problems.

In a closely fought session the top 16 drivers recorded fastest times within a second of each other ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying for the WTCC Race of Portugal.