2010. September 4. 13:52 | no comments yet.  author: Viktor Adorján

Free Practice 2 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Germany was officially proclaimed as a wet session but the field dried the track up and put the slick tires back onto the cars towards the end of the session. Chevrolets were fastest but expect a different scenario on qualifying.

Things were looking pretty dark at the moment the 2nd practice session of the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Race Control announced that the practice is considered to be a wet session which meant that the teams were allowed to put on the wet tires for the cars. It was needed as the rain just stopped ahead the beginning and, as we could see over the course of the Formula 2 race, the circuit was still very wet.

Norbert Michelisz was among the first drivers to get an impression about the state of the track and just like the others he improved his laptimes sectors by sectors thanks to the fact that the drivers were drying up the tarmac and it became faster and faster each lap.

For that reason it was not so important to closely follow the ever improving laptimes, the details remained hidden in the sector times and the level of progress the drivers could make. Focus was centered in the garage on Norbert Michelisz's performance as the Hungarian driver could extract more and more speed from the package he was given and regularly improved his laptime.

Around 19 minutes before the end of the session Michelisz drove back into the pits to change his tyres for a dry set, following this operation he was driving ahead Rookie Challenge rival Fredy Barth. The Swiss driver was a little bit faster than Michelisz which prompted talks in the garage about the effects of being drawn.

Photos from the free practices

There was a short period when Barth and Michelisz took first and second but at the end of the session both drivers got out of the top 10. This indicates how suddenly the conditions improved and also confirm that the huge gaps between the drivers are not representing the actual differences between the levels of competitiveness.

2008 world champion Yvan Muller emerged as the fastest driver with his 1:37.715 ahead Alain Menu's 1:37.885 and Tiago Monteiro's 1:38.122. Muller was more than two seconds faster than Michelisz whose 1:39.725 was good enough for the 13th place.

An hour before the qualification it seems unlikely to have another shower and it is expected that the circuit will dry up completely during the SEAT Leon EuroCup race which means that WTCC will drive on a dry track again.

The field completed approximately 20 minutes only on dry track so qualification might turn into a challenge for the Q2 and then the good grid positions. Norbert Michelisz certainly needs a good position as his 10 place grid penalty carried over from Brno is a big hit here.

Qualification for tomorrow's Race 1 of Germany will begin at 15:00, live on Eurosport.

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