Shanghai, FP2: Michelisz chases Huff

Tarquini stopped along the track during the session

Once again Rob Huff was the fastest driver in the session, but in the second practice Norbert Michelisz nearly beat him, clocking a second best lap that was only 0.032 seconds behind.

Huff posted the fastest time of the session (1:06.360) on his first lap out of the pits. The rest of the field improved consistently, although eventually no one was able to set a better mark.

With eight minutes left on the clock Michelisz completed a lap in 1:06.392 and climbed to the second place ahead of Alain Menu (1:06.541), Robert Dahlgren (1:06.595), Yvan Muller (1:06.633) and Tom Coronel (1:06.741).

The top-six were covered by less than four tenths of a second.

Colin Turkington (1:06.889) was classified seventh, followed by an impressive Aleksei Dudukalo (1:06.898) who emerged as the best of the SUNRED racers.

His team-mate Gabriele Tarquini stopped along the track during the session after having posted the 11th fastest lap. “Gabriele felt that something was wrong with the engine and decide to stop in order to avoid major damage. We are investigating…” explained team principal Joan Orús.

Charles Ng preformed a spectacular 360-degree spin at Turn 4, while his fellow Hong Kong countryman Philip Ma provided a thrilling moment when he span at Turn 12, being narrowly avoided by Mehdi Bennani, Franz Engstler and Darryl O’Young.