Citroën’s José María López was again fastest in second practice for the World Touring Car Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, beating Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente to the top time.
López had been towards the tail of the top ten throughout the session before the Argentine pitted for new tyres and put in a fast lap at the end – his 2:24.561 lap being just two tenths slower than in first practice.
Valente was second thanks to a late lap, and the Frenchman admitted he is enjoying driving around the Belgian circuit very much.
“It’s a crazy circuit – very enjoyable for a driver here,” said Valente. “It’s very fast and this year with the new regulations it’s a lot of fun to drive. You have to find a good a rhythm in sector two which is not very easy because if you make a mistake at the beginning you can lose the whole lap. I’m very happy with how it’s going.”
Yvan Muller and Ma Qing Hua were third and fourth fastest in their Citroëns, ahead of Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini in fifth who was the last driver to be within a second of the pace.
Dušan Borković was sixth fastest in a strong showing for the Campos Chevrolets, with the Serbian driver having been as high as second at the half-way stage of the session.
Tiago Monteiro and Sébastien Loeb were seventh and eighth in their Honda and Citroën respectively.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel was ninth, despite a spin half-way through the session which saw him lose the back end of his Chevrolet at Les Combes and almost hit the barrier.
Gianni Morbidelli completed the top ten in his Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet, completing the least laps of any driver during the half-hour session.
Franz Engstler was again the fastest driver in the TC2 category and was within ten seconds of the TC1 drivers for the first time this weekend, 9.342 seconds off the pace.
Qualifying takes place at 15:00 CEST (14:00 BST).
Top ten times
POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ | Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 2:24.561 | 0.000 | |
2 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 9 | 2:25.275 | 0.714 | |
3 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 2:25.403 | 0.842 | |
4 | 33 | TC1 | MA Qing Hua | Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 2:25.492 | 0.931 | |
5 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 2:25.537 | 0.976 | |
6 | 98 | TC1 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 2:26.214 | 1.653 | |
7 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 2:26.368 | 1.807 | |
8 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 2:26.465 | 1.904 | |
9 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 2:27.129 | 2.568 | |
10 | 10 | TC1 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 7 | 2:27.614 | 3.053 |