After setting the fastest time in the first Free Practice session this morning, Yvan Muller repeated the feat in the second session, shaving just over half a second off his earlier time to lap the Monza circuit in 1:57.504. Chevrolet Cruze cars set all of the top five lap times, with Britons Alex MacDowall (1:58.293) second fastest and Tom Chilton (1:58.474) third.

Behind James Nash (1:58.506) and Michel Nykjær (1:58.685), the best non-Chevrolet was the sixth-placed Castrol Honda Civic of Gabriele Tarquini (1:58.819), while the reigning World Champion Rob Huff – making his debut in a Münnich Motorsport SEAT León – was seventh fastest with a time of 1:58.980. With ninth-fastest James Thompson’s LADA Granta lapping Monza in 1:59.119, there were four different manufacturers covered by a little over one and a half seconds.

The chicane at Turn 1 again caught out a number of drivers, with Darryl O’Young spinning there on Lap 9 and Tom Boardman out-braking himself and taking to the escape road late in the session. The Ascari chicane at Turn 4 also saw the SEAT of Marc Basseng spin before the German driver resumed.

The two-stage Qualifying session begins at 15.00 CET, with tomorrow’s two races due to start at 15.05 and 17.20.