Salzburgring - FP2: Di Sabatino chases factory cars

Again a 1-2-3 for Chevrolet

By Franck Drui

19 May 2012 - 13:02
Salzburgring - FP2: Di Sabatino (…)

In a session that was twice interrupted by red flags, it was once again Chevrolet that dominated proceedings.

The fastest time (1:27.304) was set right at the end of the session by Alain Menu, with Yvan Muller second fastest (1:27.374) and Robert Huff third (1:27.377).

The fourth fastest time was set by the bamboo-engineering Cruze of Pasquale Di Sabatino (1:27.995) with Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT Leon the best of the non-Chevrolet cars in fifth place (1:28.024).

It was Huff who set the early pace and he was leading Menu and Muller when the red flags came out for the first time after around seven minutes of the session. The stoppage was caused when Darryl O’Young’s SEAT hit the tyre pile on the inside of Turn 1, forcing the León to stop in the middle the chicane.

It was then Muller’s turn to lead the Chevrolet pack until there were around eleven minutes remaining, when the two BMWs of Gábor Wéber (Turn 13) and then Mehdi Bennani (Turn 9) went off the track and so caused the second appearance of the red flags. The final third of the half-hour session then saw Menu make a last-minute bid to set the fastest time, helped by a clear track for all but the final few corners.

In the Yokohama Trophy, Di Sabatino was only around a tenth of a second or so quicker than his teammate Alex MacDowall (1:28.103), while Pepe Oriola (1:28.474) was third fastest in the category.

Once again, the tight chicane at Turns 1 and 2 caught out several of the drivers, with all of the Chevrolets taking either to the escape road or, in Huff’s case, the gravel at one point. Gabriele Tarquini had to use the escape road on no fewer than three occasions, causing the Race Director to issue a warning about respecting the track limits at the chicane.

The two-part Qualifying session begins at 15:45 CET.

Pos. Driver Car Time
1 Alain MENU Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:27.304
2 Yvan MULLER Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:27.374
3 Robert HUFF Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:27.377
4 Pasquale DI SABATINO Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:27.995
5 Gabriele TARQUINI SEAT Leon WTCC 1:28.024
6 Alex MACDOWALL Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:28.103
7 Pepe ORIOLA SEAT Leon WTCC 1:28.474
8 Tiago MONTEIRO SR Leon 1.6T 1:28.546
9 Franz ENGSTLER BMW 320 TC 1:28.604
10 Norbert MICHELISZ BMW 320 TC 1:28.662
11 James NASH Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:28.663
12 Alberto CERQUI BMW 320 TC 1:28.837
13 Tom CORONEL BMW 320 TC 1:27.839
14 Stefano D’ASTE BMW 320 TC 1:28.963
15 Tom CHILTON Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:29.112
16 Aleksei DUDUKALO SEAT Leon WTCC 1:29.205
17 Mehdi BENNANI BMW 320 TC 1:29.312
18 Charles NG BMW 320 TC 1:29.314
19 Darryl O’YOUNG SEAT Leon WTCC 1:30.027
20 Tom BOARDMAN SEAT Leon TDi 1:30.043
21 Gabor WEBER BMW 320 TC 1:30.700

WTCR

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