ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was the pace setter in second practice for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Thailand, beating Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini by just 0.078 seconds.
Chilton’s Chevrolet hit the top of the times with five minutes to go, when the Brit put on a set of new tyres on his car to go to the top of the timesheets.
Prior to that, the top time had been held by Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Benanni for around ten minutes, who pipped early pace setter José María López after ten minutes in the half-hour session.
Tarquini took second fastest in the closing seconds of the session, demoting Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz to third, with the Hungarian having briefly been fastest.
Tiago Monteiro made it three Hondas in a row with the fourth best time, ahead of Bennani in fifth, the Moroccan unable to improve his time in the final minutes.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente had been in the top five times early on in the session but ended up sixth, despite experiencing a huge slide around the half-way stage of the session as the Frenchman pushed to the very limits of his Chevrolet. His team-mate John Filippi was seventh, continuing a run of impressive practice pace that began at the last round in Shanghai.
López ended the session in eighth, unable to improve in the second half of the session as the Citroën driver focussed on his race pace.
Frenchmen Sébastien Loeb and Grégoire Demoustier completed the top ten for Citroën and Craft-Bamboo Racing respectively, with the latter making it four Chevrolets inside the top ten.
For the second session in a row Yvan Muller was unable to crack the top ten, with the Citroën driver only 13th quickest, over a second off the pace.
Track limits once again proved to be problematic for local driver Tin Sritrai, who twice had his best lap times disallowed for exceeding the limits. The Campos Racing driver ended the session in 18th and last, 1.831 seconds off the pace as a result.
Qualifying takes place on Sunday at 10:00 local time (03:00 GMT; 04:00 CET).
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:38.881 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:38.959 | 0.078 | |
| 3 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 1:39.013 | 0.132 |
| 4 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 1:39.058 | 0.177 | |
| 5 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 1:39.249 | 0.368 |
| 6 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:39.341 | 0.460 |
| 7 | 27 | Y | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 1:39.346 | 0.465 |
| 8 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 1:39.398 | 0.517 | |
| 9 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:39.463 | 0.582 | |
| 10 | 11 | Y | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 1:39.523 | 0.642 |
| 11 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:39.682 | 0.801 | |
| 12 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 15 | 1:39.761 | 0.880 | |
| 13 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 1:39.975 | 1.094 | |
| 14 | 47 | Nicolas LAPIERRE | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 3 | 1:39.990 | 1.109 | |
| 15 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 14 | 1:40.135 | 1.254 | |
| 16 | 26 | Y | Stefano D’ASTE | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 1:40.147 | 1.266 |
| 17 | 4 | Y | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 1:40.183 | 1.302 |
| 18 | 99 | Y | Tin SRITRAI |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:40.712 | 1.831 |