MACAU ROUNDS 19 & 20 PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Weather: partly sunny and hot, with a dry track during the
free practice sessions; qualifying started on a dry track
but finished on the wet.
PRACTICE 1 – RYDELL FASTEST, DIRK CRASHES
The fastest man in the first free practice session was Rickard
Rydell. The SEAT Sport Swede set the best lap of 2:34.315
in the 10th minute of the session with nobody able to top
it. Andy Priaulx was second best with a time 0.642 of a second
shy of Rydell’s. Fastest man from yesterday, Nicola
Larini, posted the third best time today for the Chevrolet
team, completing a trio of different cars on top of the time
sheet.
BMW Team Germany drivers Jörg and Dirk Müller posted
the 4th and 5th quickest laps respectively. Dirk had his session
cut short when he touched the wall at Paiol which caused his
front right wheel to fly off at the Faraway turn. His car
remained static on the track until the end of the session.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said.
“I suddenly lost the car and hit the wall. I’m
not sure the team will be able to make repairs in time for
the next session.” Current championship leader Augusto
Farfus was the best of the Alfa Romeo drivers but only 17th
overall. He was the worst placed of the drivers who are fighting
for the world title.
Local men André Couto set the 10th fastest lap, while
BMW newcomer Jan Magnussen the 14th.
Tom Coronel’s best lap was 13th fastest overall and
8 positions ahead of the next best independent driver, Luca
Rangoni. Diego Romanini closed the timesheet in 26th position,
after the Wiechers-Sport team spent most of the night repairing
his BMW 320i after yesterday’s crash.
PRACTICE 2 – HERE COMES THE CHAMPION
The reigning World Champion has risen to the top in the second
free practice. In the second part of the session Andy Priaulx
completed a lap of the Macau circuit in 2:34.335 at the wheel
of his BMW Team UK car. “I’m quite happy. We have
found a very good balance,” said the man from Guernsey.
A pair of Chevrolets followed. After being the fastest for
most of the session, Alain Menu was ousted by Priaulx by only
0.143 seconds, with Nicola Larini third, 0.250 off. In fact,
the top nine drivers were within just half a second.
Rickard Rydell once again led the SEAT Sport squad and posted
the fourth best time overall. Rydell’s team-mate Gabriele
Tarquini only managed a few minutes of the session before
crashing at Moorish Hill, which damaged his front left tyre
and led to the red flags being deployed as the León
limped back to the pits. “It was my mistake. The same
place where I crashed last year,” he admitted.
Another driver who suffered from a crash was Jan Magnussen:
“It was a brain fade. A stupid mistake that may have
serious consequences, because it cost me some important track
time.”
Dirk and Jörg Müller set the 5th and 7th best times.
The pair was split on the timesheet by GR Asia independent
driver Tom Coronel who is showing his experience on the Macau
track.
Duncan Huisman, Augusto Farfus and André Couto appeared
to still be searching for that extra something as their were
only 14th, 15th and 17th quickest of the field. Fabrizio Giovanardi
did not take part in the session because of gearbox problems.
QUALIFYING – PRIAULX ON POLE AGAIN
Andy Priaulx has placed himself in the best possible position
to retain his title - on pole, for the second consecutive
year. The Briton originally topped the timesheet with a 2:33.557
before improving it to 2:33.318 later in the session. Dirk
Müller will line up alongside his BMW companion on the
front row of the grid, followed by SEAT Sport’s Yvan
Muller.
There were two red flags during the session. The first was
due to Nicola Larini crashing his Chevrolet Lacetti into the
wall at ‘R’ bend. On resuming there was a surge
of drivers who improved their times. These included multiple
Macau Guia Race winner Duncan Huisman, current championship
leader Augusto Farfus and Fabrizio Giovanardi who eventually
qualified 4th, 7th and 8th.
The action was not to stop there. James Thompson re-created
the crash that Larini had suffered just minutes before and
again the red flags were deployed. As the session went underway
for the third time the rain began and thus effectively ended
the proceedings because almost no drivers improved their positions
and many remained even outside the qualification maxima.
As a consequence of the events Rickard Rydell was only able
to post two laps in the wet and therefore qualified 22nd.
The same bad luck also struck local boy André Couto
(18th fastest) and Chevrolet drivers Robert Huff and Alain
Menu who only managed 20th and 21st. Menu’s misfortunes
continued further as he will be demoted to the back of the
grid due to the incident he had with Luca Rangoni in Istanbul.
Potential title contender Gabriele Tarquini qualified 9th
while Jörg Müller, who is just one point off the
championship lead qualified 5th. BMW new comer Jan Magnussen
completed the top-ten.
GR Asia’s Tom Coronel set an outstanding 6th fastest
lap and easily topped the Independents’ classification.
Saturday will be a day off for the WTCC competitors, who
will hit the track again on Sunday morning at 7.30 for the
warm up that will be followed by the two final races of the
season (at 11.10 and 12.30 local time), both on 9 laps.
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