» WTCC Valencia: Coronel sets the pace ahead of qualifying

Tom Coronel posted the quickest lap time in the second and final practice session ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session to determine the grid for the first of the two-race World Touring Car Championship round at Valencia.

The Dutchman hauled his SEAT León TDI around the Ricardo Tomo circuit with a time of 1:44.537 to leapfrog the Chevrolets of Alain Menu and Robert Huff, who had led much of the session in their Cruze sedans.

While just pipped for outright honours, a confident Menu lapped almost half a second faster than his team-mate Huff, with the SEAT of Gabriele Tarquini splitting fellow championship contender Yvan Muller in the third Chevrolet.

Home crowd favourite Jordi Gené finished up sixth-quickest, ahead of two particularly rapid Independent Trophy drivers, Kristian Poulsen and Darryl O’Young, who showed a decent turn of pace on the Spanish circuit to finish inside the top-eight. SEAT’s guest driver Marc Carol finished ninth-quickest, just two hundredths of a second slower than O’Young in his petrol-powered SEAT.

Curiously the works BMWs of Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx were well down the order in 13th and 14th on the timesheets respectively, almost two seconds slower than the best lap from Coronel.

2010 WTCC Valencia 2nd Practice Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Tom Coronel	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	1:44.537	11
2.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 0.104	10
3.	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 0.600	11
4.	Gabriele Tarquini	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 0.789	12
5.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 0.878	10
6.	Jordi Gené	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 1.157	12
7.	Kristian Poulsen (I)	Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si	+ 1.512	15
8.	Darryl O’Young (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 1.672	12
9.	Marc Carol (I)	SR Sport SEAT León TFSI	+ 1.692	12
10.	Tiago Monteiro	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 1.796	11
11.	Sergio Hernández (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 1.852	13
12.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengö-Dension SEAT León TDI	+ 1.918	11
13.	Andy Priaulx	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 1.951	14
14.	Augusto Farfus	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 1.972	13
15.	Fredy Barth	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	+ 2.260	12
16.	Mehdi Bennani (I)	Wiechers Sport BMW 320si	+ 2.439	14
17.	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	+ 2.482	12
18.	Yukinori Taniguchi (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 2.558	13
19.	Andrey Romanov (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 2.674	15
20.	Stefano D’Aste (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 3.142	10
21.	Franz Engstler (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 3.620	12