ROUNDS 13 & 14 PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Weather: sunny with a dry track for the whole day.
PRACTICE 1 – JORDI GENÉ STAYS ON TOP
SEAT Sport driver Jordi Gené emerged again –
like in yesterday’s testing – as the fastest in
a calm free practice session. He completed a lap of the Brno
circuit in 2:12.119 ahead of Jörg Müller for BMW
Team Germany. Another SEAT man, Yvan Muller, posted the third
best time. Andy Priaulx was fourth and the final driver to
post a time sub 2:13.00.
Robert Huff’s time of 2:13.265 placed him 8th overall
on the time sheet; two spots above his Chevrolet team-mate
Alain Menu. Despite having a new engine in his car, Nicola
Larini again suffered technical problems as yesterday and
he was only on the track for a matter of minutes.
From the Alfa Romeo team it was Augusto Farfus who posted
the best time of 2:13.629 which placed him just outside the
top 10 in 11th.
GR Asia man Tom Coronel was the quickest of the independent
drivers in 9th position overall after completing a lap in
2:13.327. Vincent Radermecker of Maurer Motorsport was the
fastest of the four new drivers, posting the 22nd time in
his Chevrolet Lacetti.
PRACTICE 2 – J. MÜLLER OUTPACES RIVALS
He was second in this morning’s practice but in the
second session Jörg Müller succeeded in outpacing
his rivals. At the wheel of is BMW 320si he clocked a 2:14.141.
Behind him in second place was fellow BMW driver Alessandro
Zanardi. Salvatore Tavano put in a good performance in his
Alfa Romeo 156 to achieve a time of 2:14.837 putting him third.
Chevrolet’s Nicola Larini was out with force after
two engine changes. Things seemed to be working smoothly in
this session because he was fourth fastest of the entire field;
0.936 off the pace.
Gabriele Tarquini put in his best performance of the event
so far by setting a 2:15.175, the sixth best time overall
and quickest of the SEAT drivers. Jordi Gené was 9th
fastest.
One spot above Gené on the timesheet was GR Asia’s
Maurizio Ceresoli who completed a storming lap of 2:15.488
in his new SEAT León. This meant he claimed the best
time of the Independents’ category ahead of team-mate
Tom Coronel who was 13th overall. Ceresoli’s impressive
performance was put to a halt however when he stopped at the
exit of the pit lane with smoke billowing from his engine.
Maurer Motorsport’s Vincent Radermecker did not take
part in the session after he experienced engine problems in
the morning. Because the spare engine for his Chevrolet Lacetti
was delivered in the late afternoon, the Belgian driver also
missed qualifying.
QUALIFYING – TARQUINI CLAIMS POLE
Gabriele Tarquini is the man who will line up on pole for
Race 1 at Brno. He set the best lap of 2:12.286 twenty minutes
into the session at the wheel of his SEAT León. This
was the Italian’s second pole of the season, after the
one he claimed in Magny-Cours. Two BMW men qualified 2nd and
3rd: Jörg Müller and Alessandro Zanardi. They both
provisionally occupied the top spot during the session, but
their times were eventually just 0.045 and 0.067 seconds behind
Tarquini’s.
The top 16 times were within one second of each other.
The best Alfa Romeo result was courtesy of Augusto Farfus
who completed a lap in 2:13.061 which equated to 12th on the
timesheet.
Robert Huff set the 4th best time of the session for Chevrolet
but due to an earlier engine change he will be dropped 10
positions on the starting grid. The same will happen to Nicola
Larini, who posted the 11th fastest lap. Tom Coronel qualified
ahead of the rest of the independents, his time of 2:12.755
placing him 9th overall. His team-mate, Maurizio Ceresoli
did not take part in qualifying due to GR Asia engineers working
on replacing his engine. As a result, he will start at the
back of the grid. Exactly like Vincent Radermecker of Maurer
Motorsport. An engine change was also required in Pierre-Yves
Corthals’ Honda Accord Euro R and therefore he too was
penalised by 10 grid positions for Race 1.
After the end of the session, the Stewards disallowed the
fastest times of Huff, Larini and D’Aste, because they
were all posted under yellow flags.
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