ROUNDS 5 & 6 PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Weather: windy and changeable, with heavy showers; the track
remained slippery, with dry lines and puddles of water.
PRACTICE 1 – TAVANO CHASES YVAN MULLER
The name at the top of the timesheet changed as many times
as the weather for the first practice session of the day.
Huff, Rydell, Thompson and Priaulx all had a spell as fastest
but Yvan Muller of SEAT posted a 1:35.013 which was the quickest
overall. Salvatore Tavano of N.technology posted the second
best time, 0.404 seconds behind Muller. Spaniard Jordi Gené
was the third quickest with a lap of 1:35.489 at the wheel
of his SEAT León.
Andy Priaulx, who was fourth fastest overall, set the best
BMW time of 1:35.602 followed by fellow Briton James Thompson
and the young Peter Terting. Alain Menu, completed the best
lap of the Chevrolet crew, 7th overall.
Piers-Yves Corthals of JAS Motorsport led his independent
competitors at the wheel of a Honda Accord Euro R. The Belgian
driver’s time of 1:36.524 was 15th overall and 0.290
seconds better than fellow independent driver Tom Coronel
who was 16th overall.
The session begun on a damp track, which caused a few drivers
to spin. Gianni Morbidelli was the man to suffer the most
as on his first flying lap he spun his Alfa Romeo 156 at Sheene
Curve, damaging his car. Red flags were issued as half of
his car was stranded on the track. Minutes after the session
resumed, the weather took a turn for the worse and the final
ten minutes of the session were run during heavy rain.
PRACTICE 2 – MENU BEHIND FOUR SEATS
SEAT showed strength in the second practice session with
the top four lap times being set by a León. James Thompson
was the quickest of them all with a time of 1:34.668 which
was set half way into the session. Behind him was Yvan Muller
who’s best lap was 0.021 seconds off Thompson’s.
The top three was completed by Rickard Rydell with Peter Terting
right behind.
At the wheel of his Chevrolet Lacetti, Alain Menu drove a
1:35.080 lap, placing him ahead of his team-mates and 5th
overall. The 6th best time was set by BMW Team Germany man
Dirk Müller, who shot up from towards the bottom of the
table by setting a 1:35.134 with 13 minutes remaining. Jordi
Gené was 7th fastest overall followed by a quartet
of BMW 320si cars driven by Costa, Priaulx, Zanardi and Jörg
Müller respectively. Augusto Farfus had a best lap of
1:35.446 in his Alfa Romeo to be classified 12th overall.
Tom Coronel took command of the independent field for the
session and his time of 1:35.496 placed him 5th overall at
one stage before the rest of the field improved moving him
down the time sheet to 14th.
In a scenario that resembled a re-play of this morning’s
incident, an Alfa 156 spun at Sheene Curve and crashed into
the tyre wall. This time however, it was Tavano at the wheel.
Moments later, Emmet O’Brien of Wiechers Sport fell
fowl of the same slippery area of the track and spun but avoided
making contact with the barrier. The red flag was issued and
with just 3 minutes left on the clock the session was not
resumed.
QUALIFYING – FIRST POLE FOR RYDELL
Never before has the FIA WTCC seen such a breathtaking qualifying
session. On a track that was driying as the session progressed,
the name at the top of the timesheet changed a total of 18
times before Rickard Rydell secured pole for SEAT in the closing
stages. The first of the season for him, the second consecutive
for SEAT after Tarquini’s in Magny-Cours.
With a time of 1:34.493 the Swede will start ahead of the
field tomorrow joined by team-mate Peter Terting on the front
row. Chevrolet achieved its best qualifying result so far
after Rob Huff posted a spectacular 1:34.675 which placed
him 3rd on the grid at his home race. On the last lap however
he took a hard crash at Westfield Bend after going wide. Alain
Menu will line up 5th; the two Chevrolet men being separated
by Yvan Muller in his SEAT León. James Thompson looked
strong throughout the entire session until, with 6 minutes
remaining, he had to pit with a problem. Meanwhile, the field
had changed to slicks to capitalise on the drying track. The
times were falling dramatically and leaving Thompson to fall
down to 20th. He managed to rejoin the session with moments
to spare and salvaged a time of 1:35.102 which was good enough
for 6th on the grid.
Andy Priaulx was the fastest of the BMW drivers in 10th place
with a time of 1:35.668. Dirk Müller will begin Race
1 behind him after posting the 11th best time. The Alfa Romeo
team’s best lap was completed by Gianni Morbidelli,
it was 12th fastest of the entire field.
Two independent drivers made it into the top ten. Tom Coronel
of GR Asia and Pierre-Yves Corthals of JAS Motorsport will
line up among the works drivers in 7th and 9th positions respectively.
Jordi Gené had a technical problem which made it unable
for him to post a competitive time. The SEAT team are investigating
whether the engine was the cause of the Spaniard’s difficulties.
The seven fastest drivers in the session were all covered
by only 0.6 seconds.
POS - NO - CL - DRIVER - NAT - CAR
1 3 Rickard RYDELL SWE SEAT Leon
2 10 Peter TERTING GER SEAT Leon
3 6 Robert HUFF GBR Chevrolet Lacetti
4 12 Yvan MULLER FRA SEAT Leon
5 8 Alain MENU SUI Chevrolet Lacetti
6 11 James THOMPSON GBR SEAT Leon
7 20 I Tom CORONEL NED SEAT Leon
8 2 Gabriele TARQUINI ITA SEAT Leon
9 23 I Pierre-Yves CORTHALS BEL Honda Accord Euro
10 1 Andy PRIAULX GBR BMW 320si
11 43 Dirk MULLER GER BMW 320si
12 16 Gianni MORBIDELLI ITA Alfa Romeo
13 24 I Ryan SHARP GBR Honda Accord Euro R
14 7 Nicola LARINI ITA Chevrolet Lacetti
15 15 Augusto FARFUS BRA Alfa Romeo
16 30 I Luca RANGONI ITA BMW 320si
17 4 Alessandro ZANARDI ITA BMW 320si
18 19 I Maurizio CERESOLI ITA SEAT Toledo Cupra
19 5 Marcel COSTA ESP BMW 320si
20 42 Jorg MULLER GER BMW 320si
21 31 I Stefano D'ASTE ITA BMW 320i
22 18 Salvatore TAVANO ITA Alfa Romeo
23 34 I Diego ROMANINI ITA BMW 320i
|
