Thed Björk leads the way in second free practice in Hungary

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was fastest of all in the final practice session at the Hungaroring, leading Lada’s Gabriele Tarquini and Volvo team-mate Fredrik Ekblom.

The Volvos were strong throughout the session with the two blue S60s at the top end of the results table during most of the 30-minute session. The Volvo’s only briefly fell behind first Citroën’s José María López then Honda’s Norbert Michelisz, before Thed Björk produced a new lap record of 1:47.525 just after half way through the session which was never bettered.

After a number of warnings and lap deletions in Free Practice 1, the drivers were more behaved in FP2 with just three drivers losing lap times and no stewards warnings. Björk lost his best time from his first run, while Lada’s Nicky Catsburg and Münnich Chevrolet team owner/driver René Münnich both also had one of his times deleted.

“The track feels really good…and is changing all the time,” said Björk. “We’re OK in free practice but it’s in qualifying we’ll see the true result (but) we’re getting closer.”

Gabriele Tarquini left it to the final moments to appear as the closest threat to Björk, despite carrying 50kg of compensation weight on his Lada Vesta, producing a time just 0.074 seconds slower than the reigning STCC champion.

The best-placed Citroën was also the fastest privateer, with Tom Chilton fourth in his C-Elysée WTCC, just over two-tenths of a second behind Björk, with the fastest Honda that of Norbert Michelisz in fifth.

Tom Coronel was again fast in his ROAL Motorsport-run Chevrolet Cruze, producing the sixth best time by the end of the session, just ahead of Citroën’s José María López, who had produced the best second sector of all before aborting his lap and heading to the pits at the end of the session, perhaps disguising the true pace of the two-time manufacturers’ champions ahead of qualifying.

Qualifying is next and takes place at 16:00 CET.