Practice 2 : Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini repeated their first practice results and were classified first and second once again in the second session.
For most of the 30-minute practice, the Chevrolet RML cars set the pace, proving especially performing in the second sector of the Moscow Raceway. Gianni Morbidelli’s Cruze set a provisional fastest lap of 1:40.916 in the early stages, that was soon beaten by Muller’s 1:40.595.
However, ROAL Motorsport duo of Tom Coronel (1:40.103) and Tom Chilton (1:40.098) jumped on the top until Hugo Valente improved further to 1:39.943.
Positions remained frozen until the session’s dying seconds when Muller posted an impressive 1:39.505 that was not to be beaten. Afterwards, only Gabriele Tarquini was able to move up to third and then to second with a lap of 1:39.919.
They were followed by four Chevrolet cars: Valente, Chilton, Coronel and the impressive René Münnich (sixth with a lap of 1:40.214). José María López, Tiago Monteiro, Mehdi Bennani and Sébastien Loeb rounded off the top-ten.
Once again Franz Engstler was fastest in the TC2T class (1:43.7778).
The Qualifying session will start at 14:30.
Eight cars covered by six tenths
Practice 1: For the first practice session of the day a bright sky welcomed WTCC drivers who had to cope with a low-grip tarmac.
As a consequence, several cars missed the braking points and struggled to stay in control while negotiating some corners.
Lap after lap the times were significantly improved, with different cars and drivers alternating on top of the time sheet. Sébastien Loeb’s Citroën (1:41.338), Tiago Monteiro’s Honda (1:41.265), Yvan Muller’s Citroën (1:41.158), Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda (1:40.475) and Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet (1:40.130) set provisional fastest laps.
Eventually Muller was able break the 1:40. wall and posted the fastest time for good at 1:39.898. However Tarquini responded with a 1:39.962 that was only 0.064 seconds slower. Coronel (1:40.130), Monteiro (1:40.168), Loeb (1:40.306), Mehdi Bennani (1:40.831), Tom Chilton (1:40.480) and José María López (1:40.496) filled the positions between third and eight, all covered by less than six tenths.
Citroën’s rookie Ma Qing Hua ranked ninth (1:40.796) with Gianni Morbidelli (1:40.900) in tenth. James Thompson was the fastest of the LADA drivers, twelfth with a lap of 1:41.115. His team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy stopped on the track due to a technical problem.
Franz Engstler topped the TC2T class (1:43.732) despite a couple of spins at turns 12 and 15.
