Farfus fastest in Curitiba test

Date published : 05 Mar 2010 - 18:45:56

Augusto Farfus went quickest for BMW in Friday's test session at Curitiba, ahead of the opening round of the World Touring Car Championship this weekend.The Brazilian sat atop the timesheet for most of the half-hour session and bettered his time in the closing stages following a brief red flag while Stefano D'Aste's indepedent BMW was retrieved from a spin into the gravel."I am happy," reported Farfus. "We took advantage of the red flag and pitted to make some changes to the car, which were very effective. It was a good feeling to drive around so quickly. Now I have set the pace, I'm sure that from tomorrow the others will be closer but I wish to stay ahead if I can."Alain Menu pulled out a late quick lap to take the second fastest time for Chevrolet, demoting Andy Priaulx's BMW to third.Yvan Muller was fourth fastest on his first official outing for Chevrolet, just a tenth ahead of team-mate Rob Huff. Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini was sixth fastest in the first of the SEATs.The WTCC today announced that no diesel-powered cars will be eligible for the independents' class, so Hungarian Norbert Michelisz's seventh place in his Zengo-Dension entered SEAT is officially a factory effort. The fellow works SEATs of Tom Coronel, Tiago Monteiro and Michel Nykjaer rounded out the top 10.The fastest official independent was Darryl O'Young, making his series debut with Bamboo Engineering in a Chevrolet Lacetti. He finished the session 11th quickest.Jordi Gene was the only frontrunner not to complete much mileage in the half hour, limited to just three laps by a steering problem on his Leon TDi.Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Augusto Farfus BMW 1m24.243s 2. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m24.732s +0.489s 3. Andy Priaulx BMW 1m24.739s +0.496s 4. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 1m24.805s +0.562s 5. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m24.960s +0.717s 6. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1m25.308s +1.065s 7. Norbert Michelisz SEAT 1m25.625s +1.382s 8. Tom Coronel SEAT 1m25.846s +1.603s 9. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1m25.864s +1.621s10. Michel Nykjaer SEAT 1m26.424s +2.181s11. Darryl O'Young Chevrolet 1m26.514s +2.271s12. Fredy Barth SEAT 1m26.570s +2.327s13. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1m26.682s +2.439s14. Mehdi Bennani BMW 1m26.870s +2.627s15. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet 1m26.971s +2.728s16. Franz Engstler BMW 1m26.985s +2.742s17. Stefano D'Aste BMW 1m27.430s +3.187s18. Andrei Romanov BMW 1m29.246s +5.003s19. Jordi Gene SEAT 1m39.699s +15.456s