Yvan Muller set the fastest lap in the first practice session at Suzuka this morning.
Muller topped the time sheet since the beginning of the session: he clocked a provisional fastest lap of 2:08.088 on his first outing and improved to 2:08.066 on the following lap. No one was able to be faster.
López settled in second position with a lap of 2:08.633 and Tarquini climbed to third (2:09.028) ahead of his team-mate Tiago Monteiro (2:09.176).
Hugo Valente, in fifth position, was the fastest of the Chevrolet drivers once again (2:09.209), while Sébastien Loeb ranked sixth (2:09.275). Norbert Michelisz, Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel and Dušan Borković filled the positions between seventh and tenth, relegating the LADA cars of Rob Huff and James Thompson in 11th and 12th.
Mehdi Bennani’s Honda car continued to suffer from technical problems and the Moroccan driver was forced to stay in the pits for most of the session.
In the TC2T class Franz Engstler set the pace (2:15.974), two tenths faster than John Filippi. Newcomer Henry Kwong had a moment when he spun at T7 and brushed the Armco barrier with the nose of his SEAT car.
Practice 2 – Muller is faster than Morbidelli
Yvan Muller continued to lead in today’s practice, setting the fastest lap in the second session ahead of Gianni Morbidelli.
Norbert Michelisz topped the times in the early stages with a lap of 2:09.341; however the Hungarian was soon demoted to second by José María López’s 2:08.510.
Sébastien Loeb was the next to post a provisional fastest lap of 2:08.311. In the final part of the session Morbidelli improved further to 2:08.243, making his first appearance on top after struggling during yesterday’s test and this morning’s first practice.
However, the Italian’s leadership did not last for long as Muller clocked a 2:07.953 that settled the matter for good.The session was the closest so far during the weekend, with Muller, Morbidelli, Loeb and Tiago Monteiro all covered by only four tenths of a second. López and Gabriele Tarquini followed in fifth and sixth one further tenth adrift. Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel and Norbert Michelisz filled the positions from 7th to 9th with Rob Huff’s LADA in 10th.
Dušan Borković and Henry Kwong missed the whole session: the Serbian spun at T8 and hit the rails, breaking the front spoiler of his Chevrolet RML car, while Kwong’s SEAT stopped on the track with a technical failure. John Filippi clocked the fastest lap in the TC2T class (2:15.406) beating Franz Engstler by one tenth.
