Tarquini edges Muller with last-gasp effort in second WTCC practice at the Hungaroring

The Italian veteran waited until his final lap to displace World Touring Car championship leader Yvan Muller from the top of the timesheets.

As in the earlier session, the margins were close. Tarquini's lap of 1m55.287s edged out the RML Chevrolet driver by 0.026s.

Muller's factory Cruze team-mate Rob Huff took third. Fresh from victory at the preceding Slovakia Ring reversed-grid race last week, Huff is Muller's closest rival in the points race, lying 27 points adrift.

Hong Kong racer Darryl O'Young enjoyed one of his most promising showings of the season to take fourth. In his first season behind the wheel of Special Tuning's Leon WTCC, O'Young had the honour of outpacing the third factory Chevrolet of Alain Menu.

Yokohama Independents points leader Pepe Oriola took sixth in his Tuenti Racing Leon, 0.013s ahead of leading BMW runner Tom Coronel (ROAL Motorsport).

James Thompson's Lada Granta Sport made huge strides from free practice one to finish ninth in its maiden WTCC outing. Owing to its nationally homologated status, the Granta will not be allowed to progress into Q2 should it finish among the top-12 in this afternoon's first qualifying session.

Following a competitive showing in Slovakia, the Team Aon Fords have struggled for pace at the Hungaroring. The Focus S2000 TCs of James Nash and Tom Chilton propped up the bottom of the classification in 21st and 22nd.

"We are struggling in the braking zones, and it's killing our mid-corner speed," explained Nash. "We made a change after free practice one and, unfortunately, that has messed up something else so we spent most of the session in the pits rectifying it.

"We have to try these things, and we now know what it is. Although we have a lot of work to do before qualifying, Slovakia has showed that when we're on equal footing, on a track new to everyone, we can be competitive."

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            1m55.287s
 2.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              1m55.313s   + 0.026s
 3.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              1m55.662s   + 0.375s
 4.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT    1m55.905s   + 0.618s
 5.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              1m56.038s   + 0.751s
 6.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            1m56.618s   + 1.331s
 7.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               1m56.631s   + 1.344s
 8.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       1m56.659s   + 1.372s
 9.  James Thompson        Lada Granta Sport      1m56.705s   + 1.418s
10.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            1m56.949s   + 1.662s
11.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            1m57.007s   + 1.720s
12.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              1m57.072s   + 1.785s
13.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           1m57.335s   + 2.048s
14.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    1m57.344s   + 2.057s
15.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       1m57.371s   + 2.084s
16.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            1m57.437s   + 2.150s
17.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              1m57.637s   + 2.350s
18.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               1m57.677s   + 2.390s
19.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW           1m57.726s   + 2.439s
20.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           1m57.820s   + 2.533s
21.  James Nash            Arena Ford             1m57.950s   + 2.663s
22.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             1m58.054s   + 2.767s