This afternoon the second meeting of the FIA WTCC
season got underway under Puebla's sunshine.
In a session that saw early successful times for the
Chevrolet team, a trio of SEAT drivers took the top three spots. Jordi Gené set
the fastest lap just before Tom Coronel's SEAT stopped along the track, causing
a yellow flag with a minute left on the clock.
With a time of 1:42.603, Gené was half a second
faster than his closest rival and team-mate Tiago Monteiro whose time was
1:43.089. Winner in Brazil, Gabriele Tarquini topped off the SEAT success with a
lap of 1:43.209.
Alain
Menu was fourth in the Chevrolet
with a time of 1:43.548, and BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus in fifth only
0.039 adrift. Another SEAT driver, Rickard Rydell rounded off the top six only
0.054 behind Farfus, who was the fastest of the struggling rear-wheel driven BMW
cars.
Pierre-Yves
Corthals highlighted the domination
of SEAT by setting the fastest time in the Independents' class, and being an
impressive seventh overall, with a time of 1:43.761. During the session Corthals
also made small mistakes on laps that appeared to be threatening the lead,
demonstrating the potential his car has for the remainder of the weekend.
Although there were no major
incidents during the test, there were a few drivers whose tyres came into
contact with the grass. Farfus went off twice, and his more dramatic was
spinning into Turn 10 early in the session. Ibrahim Okyay also left the
racetrack twice in two spins at turns 9 and 13.
Coronel had a moment coming out of Turn 3 but managed to
hold the car as it bumped its way over the kerb. However, near to the end of the
session his car stopped on the track at Turn 7, as he felt that it might have
suffered from a suspension problem.
BULLET
NEWS
CHEVROLET REMEMBER
LESLIE
The Chevrolet RML team
will pay a tribute to David Leslie, the former touring car legend and Eurosport
commentator who perished last Sunday in a plane crash.
Leslie was a close friend of team principal Ray Mallock
and had raced for several years for RML in the British Touring Car
Championship.
From tomorrow's first free practice session the three
Lacetti cars will sport a right rearview mirror decorated with laurels and the
wording: David Leslie, 1953-2008.
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