ROUNDS 17 & 18 PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Weather: sunny, with a dry track.
PRACTICE 1 – BEST LAP FOR JÖRG MÜLLER
Jörg Müller set the pace in the first free practice
session, as he clocked a fastest lap of 1:43.274. The time
was set on his third lap and none of the drivers could better
it. Behind Jörg’s BMW was Gabriele Tarquini in
his Alfa Romeo, 0.148 of a second slower, then Jordi Gené
and Peter Terting in their SEAT León cars. Augusto
Farfus completed the top 5 drivers.
The fastest 13 times were all within 0.7 seconds of each
other with Alain Menu occupying 13th spot which made him the
fastest of the Chevrolet drivers. Thomas Klenke looked like
he was going to finish among the top ten times until James
Thompson posted a 1:43.874, demoting the Ford man to 11th
by just 0.066 of a second. Young Spaniard Marc Carol achieved
an encouraging 14th quickest time in his first outing in the
FIA WTCC for SEAT Sport, while Polo Villaamil is at the bottom
of the times as he adjusts to touring cars. His GR Asia team-mate
Tom Coronel however, was by far the quickest Independent competitor
and 9th overall.
PRACTICE 2 – ALFA, FORD AND SEAT ON TOP
The fastest time in the second practice was posted by Fabrizio
Giovanardi who completed a lap in 1:45.162 in his Alfa Romeo
156. However, it was Michael Funke’s name at the top
of the timesheet for the first half of the session. The German
set a time of 1:44.690 in his Ford Focus on the third lap
before stopping seconds later and being towed away. Despite
this early departure due to an engine failure; Funke’s
time was good enough to remain 2nd quickest. SEAT continued
to do well as Jordi Gené and Rickard Rydell were 3rd
and 4th fastest respectively; their times just 0.007 apart,
while the third León driven by Peter Terting was 6th.
The SEAT Sport men were split by Chevrolet’s Nicola
Larini who had the 5th best time, 0.507 off the best pace.
The best BMW car was 10th overall, driven by Jörg Müller.
In the Independents category, Tom Coronel dominated again
clocking, the 9th fastest time overall.
QUALIFYING – POLE FOR GENÉ IN THE NEW
LEÓN
In a riveting qualifying session SEAT came out on top and
Jordi Gené will start on pole tomorrow, joined by his
team-mate Peter Terting on the front row. Gené was
the only driver to set a time below 1 minute 43 seconds –
1:42.778, meaning a Spanish driver in a Spanish car on pole
in the WTCC Race of Spain, and also the first pole position
for the new SEAT León on its only third appearance.
Dirk Müller completed the top three who all set their
best times in the final seconds.
SEAT Sport began their attack nine minutes into the session
as Gené, Rydell and Terting jumped to 1st-2nd-3rd.
The three then returned to the pits and waited to see if a
challenge was mounted. It did indeed come, in the form of
Farfus’ Alfa Romeo as he split the SEAT trio by slotting
into 3rd place with a lap of 1:43.361. Ten minutes later,
Rydell and Terting were back on the track with the young German
right on the tail of his team-mate to benefit from a slip-stream.
The team tactics worked as Terting improved his time and returned
to 3rd position. However, the action was by no means over
as Rob Huff of Chevrolet shot to 6th place and then the lap
later he set a fantastic 1:43.295, promoting himself to 2nd.
He couldn’t hold on to that spot though as Gené
and Terting worked together to reduce their times even further.
They secured a SEAT 1-2 and Dirk Müller also stormed
through on his final lap to set a 3rd fastest 1:43.277. This
demoted Huff to 4th - still Chevrolet’s best qualifying
position so far. Rickard Rydell will be on row three with
Farfus next to him in 6th. The Brazilian youngster emerged
as the fastest of the Alfa Romeo men who were all fighting
against understeer. Ford were unable to be as competitive
as they were in the practice sessions as Klenke and Funke
set the 18th and 20th quickest times.
The battle to be the fastest independent driver was also
closely fought as at one point, Rosenblad, Coronel, De Micheli
and Engström’s times were within an incredibly
tight 0.314 of a second. Eventually it was Coronel of GR Asia
who prevailed and posted the 11th fastest time overall. However,
due to an engine change after Istanbul, he will begin 21st
after being penalised 10 grid positions. This means JAS Motorsport
man, De Micheli in 16th will head the Independent field with
Rosenblad in the spot right behind.
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