RML’s Yvan Muller set the pace in second practice for the World Touring Car Championship at Porto, posting a time more than half a second faster than second-placed Gabriele Tarquini.
Click here for the full second practice times.
Frenchman Muller posted the fastest time of the session in the final third, ousting previous pace-setter Tarquini from the top of the times. Although Honda’s Tarquini was able to improve his time after it was not enough to topple the points leader, who ended the session an impressive 0.581 seconds ahead of the Italian.
Pepe Oriola posted the third fastest time in his new Tuenti-run, RML-supported Chevrolet Cruze, ahead of fourth-placed Norbert Michelisz, who ended the session more than a second adrift of Muller.
There was disaster for local favourite Tiago Monteiro however as the Portugese slowed after just two laps due to a spectacular engine failure on his Civic., bringing about a red flag period. His JAS team will face a race against time to complete an engine change ahead of qualifying.
Campos Racing’s Fernando Monje was fifth fastest, with the Spaniard having briefly been quickest at the half-way stage of the session. Early morning pace-setter Tom Coronel was sixth, ahead of the trio of Brits of Alex MacDowall, Tom Chilton and Tom Boardman. Hugo Valente completed the top ten for Campos Racing.
Rob Huff finished the session in 13th, behind Münnich Motorsport team-mate Marc Basseng.
Campos’ third driver Nikolay Karamyshev was 15th quickest and brought out the yellow flags in sector three when he took too much kerb at the final chicane and went into the tyre barriers, almost flipping his SEAT in the process.
Brit James Thompson was the top LADA pilot in 20th. His young Russian team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy ended the session in last after completing just four laps, having hit the wall with his left-rear wheel early in the session.
Qualifying takes place at 15:00 WEST (15:00 BST; 16:00 CEST).