Gabriele Tarquini has set the fastest time in the second free practice ahead of qualifying for rounds 17 and 18 of the 2012 Race of USA at Sonoma Raceway.
The Italian beat Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller by 0.286s as the top 11 cars were all front wheel drive. Top BMW was Norbert Michelisz in 12th, just over a second off Tarquini’s best time.
Throughout the second practice session, the fastest driver changed hands a number of times with Muller, Tarquini, Fernando Monje, Alain Menu and Tom Boardman all having time on top of the times.
Eventually, it was Tarquini who set the benchmark time, with five of the top ten all being SEAT’s, and three of the top four as Tiago Monteiro set the third fastest time of the session ahead of the top Yokohama Independent runner, Tom Boardman in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon.
Rob Huff completed the top five, just over half a second slower than Tarquini while the top ten was completed by Menu, Tarquini’s Lukoil Racing Team team-mate Alexsei Dudukalo, Monje and the Team Aon duo of James Nash and Tom Chilton. Both Nash and Chilton had hoped for a strong Sonoma weekend as the track is new to the whole field.
The BMW’s all struggled with turn two with both the ROAL Motorsport cars of Tom Coronel and Alberto Cerqui, Wiechers-Sport’s Stefano D’Aste, Franz Engstler in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler car and Michelisz all having a moment at the corner.
Qualifying ahead of rounds 17 and 18 takes place at 14:15 PST, 10.15 GMT.