Slovakia Ring, FP2: Tarquini is quickest again

Gabriele Tarquini and his Castrol Honda Team Civic set the fastest time in the second Free Practice, just as they did in the first session earlier in the day.

This time, however, there was no repeat of the Honda 1-2 from FP1, as Tiago Monteiro could only set the fifth fastest time.

Tarquini only set the fastest lap with around two minutes of the session remaining, after he took to the gravel at Turn 13 on just his second lap. The session was then red-flagged shortly afterwards when the SEAT León of René Münnich stopped at Turn 9. While the Honda mechanics cleaned out the gravel from Tarquini’s car, it was the two RML Chevrolet Cruze cars that topped the timesheet; first Tom Chilton and then Yvan Muller taking turns to set fast lap times before Tarquini set the fastest lap of all (2:12.228). Muller was then second quickest
(2:12.411) and Chilton third (2:12.813) with Rob Huff fourth in a SEAT (2:12.904) and Monteiro fifth (2:13.668).

Fastest of the Yokohama Trophy entrants was Darryl O’Young in a BMW (2:13.956), while the driver who qualified on pole position here last year, Norbert Michelisz, was seventh in a Honda Civic (2:14.128). Fernando Monje (2:14.131), Tom Coronel (2:14.165) and Pepe Oriola (2:14.242) completed the top ten.

Apart from Münnich bringing out the red flags, there were also several visits to the gravel for his teammate, Marc Basseng, while Charles Ng and Fredy Barth found themselves in the same gravel trap at Turn 6 at virtually the same time. Alex MacDowall also found himself in the gravel at Turn 13 in the closing minutes of the half-hour session.

The two-part Qualifying session is due to begin at 15.30 CET.