Zolder - FP2: Nykjaer chases works Chevys

SUNRED Engineering driver Michel Nykjær continued to impress in the second free practice. After posting the third fastest lap in the morning session, the Dane and his SEAT León TDi car were again the fastest of the Yokohama Trophy and of the rest of the field except Chevrolet’s three works cars.

Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Alain Menu clocked the three best laps of 1:39.190, 1:39.297 and 1:39.363 respectively, all covered by 0.173 seconds only. But Nykjær was not far behind with a lap of 1:39.518 that was les than two tenths slower than Menu’s.

Nykjær managed to oust Darryl O’Young’s bamboo-engineering Cruze 1.6T from fourth, beating the time of 1:39.597 set by the Chinese driver.

Gabriele Tarquini rounded up the top six with a lap of 1:39.814, followed by Franz Engstler’s BMW (1:39.919). All other competitors remain above the 1:40. mark, beginning from Tiago Monteiro (1:40.005), Robert Dahlgren (1:40.075) and Pepe Oriola (1:40.233).

The hot temperatures made lap times slower than those set in the morning session.

Again some of the drivers tested the run-off areas: Huff at Sterrenwacht, Urs Sonderegger at the Chicane, Fredy Barth at Jochen Rindt, while Fabio Fabiani spun at the first corner.