After going quickest in Thursday evening’s Free Practice 1, the Citroën-driving Argentine was again fastest during this morning’s Free Practice 2, which took place on a damp but drying track following overnight rain.

Works Citroën pilot Yvan Muller was second best on Thursday followed by Tom Chilton and Nicky Catsburg from the factory LADA team. His team-mates Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente completed the top three in Free Practice 2 followed by Norbert Michelisz, who learned the 25.378-kilometre track on his driving simulator at home in Hungary.

Both sessions have been full of incident: Rob Huff (Honda) and Valente crashed heavily on Thursday, albeit without injury, while Huff went off twice on Friday morning. German racer and TV presenter Sabine Schmitz was also caught out in the slippery conditions, striking a barrier and damaging the front-left corner of her Chevrolet. 

After an engine misfire hampered his progress on Thursday, Fredrik Ekblom was back on track this morning in his factory Volvo S60 Polestar TC1. However, an engine change overnight will result in the Swede starting from the back of the grid for Saturday’s Opening Race.

Qualifying is next up for the WTCC drivers at 12h45 local time with the Manufacturers Against the Clock team time trial getting underway at 14h10.