ROUNDS 17 & 18 PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Weather: sunny and hot, with a dry track.
PRACTICE 1 – LUCA RANGONI IS FASTEST
In the opening practice session independent driver, Luca Rangoni
of Proteam Motorsport was the man to set the quickest time.
He and his BMW 320si did a lap of the Valencia track in 1:44.443
which was 0.183 of a second better than Peter Terting of SEAT
Sport. The second and third best times were separated by a
mere 0.006 of a second, Augusto Farfus slotting in third at
the wheel of his N.technology Alfa Romeo 156.
Positions 4 to 8 were occupied by SEAT León cars.
Yvan Muller was followed by Jordi Gené, James Thompson,
Gabriele Tarquini and finally Tom Coronel of GR Asia. Coronel’s
team-mate Maurizio Ceresoli span off the track after two laps
but after being towed from his dangerous position he re-joined
the session. Robert Huff set a time of 1:45.055 placing himself
9th on the time-sheet for Chervolet. Dirk Müller was
in the position below, completing the top ten as the best
of the BMW works drivers.
The majority of the best laps were set within the first
10 minutes of the session while the top 16 times are separated
by just one second.
PRACTICE 2 – JORDI GENÉ WARMS UP
Race 1 winner from last year and local hero, Jordi Gené,
looks to be warming up for an attempt at a repeat performance
as he topped the timesheet for free practice 2. He set the
best time of 1:45.299 in the opening stages of the session
and nobody was able to top it.
Tom Coronel posted a time 0.041 slower than Gené’s
for 2nd position overall and the best independent in his SEAT
León.
On his penultimate lap Rob Huff sneaked into the top three
behind the wheel of his Chevrolet Lacetti. His time of 1:45.800
knocked SEAT Sport’s new driver, Oscar Nogués
to 4th. The young Spaniard posted an impressive 1:45.911 which
was the second best of the SEAT works drivers. BMW man Dirk
Müller set the 5th quickest time followed by independent
BMW driver Luca Rangoni.
Rickard Rydell managed only two laps before going out at
turn 12. He was unable to re-join the session.
QUALIFYING – FARFUS PIPS GENÉ
Augusto Farfus will line up on pole position for tomorrow’s
Race 1. He posted a time of 1:44.534 in the dying seconds
of the qualifying session to demote local hero Jordi Gené
down to second. Gené – who had set pole position
last year – was the name at the top of the timesheet
for the majority of the session with a lap in 1:44.808, which
he even improved to 1:44.662 with eight minutes remaining
before Farfus’ last minute break-through. This was Farfus’
second pole of the season after Curitiba.
The second row will comprise of Salvatore Tavano’s
Alfa Romeo and Alain Menu’s Chevrolet. They both posted
their best times (1:44.825 and 1:44.863 respectively, with
only a 0.011 seconds gap) towards the end of the session,
Menu peaking with two minutes remaining on the clock. Fellow
Chevrolet man Nicola Larini set a solid time of 1:44.971 which
equated to 6th on the grid. SEAT team-mates James Thompson
and Peter Terting are set to line up alongside each other
in 7th and 8th position. Behind them is a quartet of BMW cars:
Jörg Müller followed by Proteam’s Luca Rangoni
and then the BMW Team Italy-Spain pair Alessandro Zanardi
and Duncan Huisman. Tom Coronel qualified an outstanding 5th
overall and ahead of the rest of the independent drivers.
His closest rival for the Independent trophy is Stefano D’Aste
who qualified 19th.
Vincent Radermecker, who is also competing in the independent
category, did not take part in the session because of engine
problems with his Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Lacetti.
SEAT Sport’s newcomer Oscar Nogués qualified
18th – only 8 tenths off the pole. The session was extremely
close, even for WTCC standards, with a grand total of 22 drivers
qualifying within 0.990 seconds.
STOP PRESS – RYDELL DROPPED After
the end of the session the Stewards disallowed Rickard Rydell’s
fastest lap (1:45.333) because the Swedish driver improved
whilst the yellow flags were deployed. Therefore Rydell’s
second best lap of 1:45.480 means he drops from 16th to 20th.
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