Salzburgring, FP2 : Huff splits the Chevy cars

Chevrolet Cruze cars set three of the four fastest times during the second Free Practice session at the Salzburgring, with Yvan Muller again topping the timesheet.

Muller’s best lap (1:26.344) was set late in the session, but wasn’t quite enough to beat the time he set in FP1. Second fastest was Rob Huff in a SEAT León (1:26.928), while the best of the Yokohama Trophy competitors, James Nash was third quickest (1:26.995) in the first of the bamboo-engineering cars.

Just as in FP1, the session was again dominated by Chevrolet. Muller’s RML teammate Tom Chilton was the early pace-setter, before Nash set his best time on Lap 6. Muller was lucky to escape unscathed after a spin at Turn 1 to set the fastest lap time of all with around five minutes of the session remaining. Gabriele Tarquini also improved late in the session to set the fifth quickest time in his Honda Civic (1:27.200).

Apart from Muller’s spin, Norbert Michelisz also fell foul of Turn 1 and hit a tyre barrier after missing his braking point for the chicane. The resulting puncture saw the Zengö Motorsport Honda Civic limp back to the pits, while another puncture forced the Campos Racing SEAT of Hugo Valente to park up in the escape road after T1. The LADA Granta of James Thompson missed the session completely with a steering problem.

The two-part Qualifying session is due to begin at 15.00 CET.