After emerging as the fastest driver in yesterday’s Test session, Jordi Gené regained the first position in the time sheet during the second free practice.
The Spaniard drove his Craft-Bamboo Lukoil SEAT to set a provisional fastest lap of 1:44.709 in the opening stages of the session and soon improved to 1:44.223; a time that was not to be beaten, although Gianni Morbidelli and his Honda Civic came very close with a best lap of 1:44.329.
Gené’s teammates Sergey Afanasyev (1:44.456) and Pepe Oriola (1:44.489) ranked third and fifth respectively; they were split by Lorenzo Veglia in fourth (1:44.462). Kevin Gleason posted the sixth fastest lap (1:44.514) and was followed by an impressive Munkong Sathienthirakul (1:44.678) who topped the TCR Asia field once again.
The eleven fastest drivers were covered by only seven tenths of a second, with René Münnich, Loris Hezemans, Stefano Comini and Tomas Engström who filled the positions from eighth to eleventh.
Alain Menu’s Subaru joined the session during the final five minutes after the team worked to solve some transmission problems, while Rob Holland’s Ford skipped the practice due to a technical issue.
The Qualifying session will follow at 15.00 local time.