WTCC: Thompson takes over at Monza

[Plex]

The fastest lap of the second free practice session came courtsey of James Thompson. The Alfa Romeo N.technology driver"s fastest lap was 2:00.898.

He held the top spot for most of the session thanks to an early lap of 2:00.976 that he eventually managed to improve by one tenth.

Nicola Larini of Chevrolet set the initial pace but was replaced by SEAT Sport's Gabriele Tarquini.

In the later stages of the session the three Chevrolets completed a lap in a row to benefit from slipstreaming. Larini clocked a time of 2:01.172 which was second best overall.

Alain Menu later went on to post the third best time which was 0.617 off the pace. Rob Huff was 12th fastest after receiving a blame from the Stewards for the collision he had with Hern�ndez in the previous session.

SEAT Sport's best time came from Yvan Muller in fourth with a 2:01.537. Team-mate Tarquini was seventh quickest overall.

The Le�n drivers were split by the Alfa Romeo of Olivier Tielemans in fifth and BMW Team UK's Fredrik Ekblom in sixth.

The top independent times were close with Roberto Colciago, Luca Rangoni and Pierre-Yves Corthals achieving the ninth to 11th positions respectively. The trio's times were within less than one tenth of a second.

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