Gabriele Tarquini pipped Yvan Muller to the fastest time in the second World Touring Car Championship free practice session in the closing seconds, whilst Rob Huff ended the session in third.
Click here for the full second practice times.
Chevrolet’s Muller had been on top throughout most of the session, until Italian Tarquini posted the fastest time in the closing seconds of the session. That left Muller second fastest at the end of the session, just 0.026 seconds slower than Tarquini’s best time. Rob Huff was third, 0.375 seconds slower than Tarquin.
A surprise fourth quickest was Special Tuning Racing’s Darryl O’Young, who had been on top of the times half-way through the thirty minute session. Fifth quickest was Alain Menu in the third works Chevrolet.
Spaniard Pepe Oriola was sixth quickest to ensure that the session ended with three SEATs and three Chevrolets inside the top six positions.
The best BMW driver was Tom Coronel in seventh, although the Dutchman was more than a second off Tarquini’s time. Alex MacDowall improved on his earlier practice to go eighth fastest for bamboo engineering.
James Thompson posted the ninth fastest lap in the new LADA Granta Sport as the Brit continues to work on the set-up of the new car on its first appearance in the WTCC. Tiago Monteiro completed the top ten in his Sunred-engined SEAT Leon.
It was a difficult session for Team Aon, with James Nash and Tom Chilton propping up the timesheets in 21st and 22nd respectively. The British duo were more than 2.5 seconds off the pace as they continued to find the ideal set-up for their Ford Focus’ around the twisty Hungaroring circuit.
Qualifying takes place at 1400 Budapest time, 1300 GMT.