Menu heads second practice

Alain Menu topped the final free practice session for the penultimate round of the World Touring Car Championship at Shanghai on Saturday morning.

As the factory Chevrolet Cruzes revealed more of their potential, each of the team’s three drivers held the top spot during the session.

But it was Swiss veteran Menu, an outside bet for this year’s title, who secured the fastest time with a 1m55.874s lap.

Yvan Muller was just 0.039s further back in second ahead of Rob Huff, with whom he shares the championship lead. The focus of the weekend will inevitably be the finely-poised battle in the drivers’ standings between the RML Chevy men.

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel took his BMW around 0.1s quicker than in the earlier session to wind up as the best of the non-Cruze drivers in fourth.

Independents’ points leader Norbert Michelisz was fifth fastest, although the Zengo BMW racer was over 1s slower then Menu’s impressive benchmark.

Michelisz’s rival for the Independents’ Trophy, Pepe Oriola, was down in 11th, following a drama-filled opening session in which his SUNRED SEAT stopped out on track.

Lukoil SEAT driver Gabriele Tarquini completed the top six ahead of a respectable effort from Special Tuning’s Tom Boardman, who edged out the WSR Chevrolet of series returnee and FP1 pacesetter Colin Turkington.

Despite several drivers reporting a low-grip track, a half-spin by Kelvin Leong’s Honda Accord and a quick rotation by Alex Liu’s Engstler BMW were among relatively few incidents.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/touring-cars/wtcc/menu-heads-second-practice

Maurício Gugelmin Dan Gurney Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood Mika Häkkinen