Sonoma, FP2: Tarquini’s Seat is fastest

Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT emerged as the fastest car in the second practice, a session that saw the León cars (both SEAT and Sunred) consistently among the top positions, proving that they can fight with Chevrolet on equal footing.

After Yvan Muller (1:47.501) and Tarquini (1:47.422) had set the pace in the opening minutes, Fernando Monje jumped on top with an impressive lap of 1:47.224 that eventually placed him eighth.

A few other drivers alternated in the lead as the session went on: Alain Menu (1:47.210), Aleksei Dudukalo (1:47.136) and Tom Boardman (1:46.885). Then, in the last part of the session, Tarquini completed a lap of 1:46.457 that was going to stay the fastest until the end.

Muller improved to 1:46.852 and moved up to second, while Tiago Monteiro claimed third place with a lap of 1:46.881. Boardman retained a brilliant fourth place, ahead of Rob Huff (1:46.987), Menu (1:47.080), Dudukalo and Monje. The two Ford cars of James Nash (1:47.308) and Tom Chilton (1:47.369) rounded off the top ten.

Norbert Michelisz was the best of the BMW drivers in 12th position. The German cars struggled to find the grip and a few drivers – Stefano D’Aste, Alberto Cerqui, Franz Engstler and Tom Coronel – all spun at Turn 2.