Menu flies in Porto practice

Date published : 02 Jul 2011 - 08:51:14

Alain Menu broke the record for the fastest touring car lap around Porto's Circuito da Boavista in today's opening World Touring Car Championship practice session.The Swiss driver's 2m07.068s comfortable eclipsed the 2m09.026s produced by Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff in testing yesterday, which had also been a record. The quicker times are largely the product of the track having been widened and, in places, resurfaced since the championship's last visit. The fastest time on the previous configuration was Gabriele Tarquini's 2m09.308s pole lap in 2009, and the times are expected to fall again later today.Chevrolet locked out the top three places in the session, with Menu, Yvan Muller and Huff being covered by less than 0.1 seconds. The closest challenger was Tom Coronel, who was 0.5s behind in his ROAL BMW.Fredy Barth was quickest of the Independent drivers, posting a 2m08.026s in his SUNRED SEAT to put him just ahead of series returnee and former Independent champion Stefano d'Aste's Wiechers-Sport BMW.Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2m06.992s 2. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 2m07.080s + 0.088s 3. Rob Huff Chevrolet 2m07.085s + 0.093s 4. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 2m07.587s + 0.595s 5. Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 2m07.825s + 0.833s 6. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT 2m08.026s + 1.034s 7. Stefano D'Aste Wiechers BMW 2m08.041s + 1.049s 8. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 2m08.075s + 1.083s 9. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT 2m08.151s + 1.159s10. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT 2m08.394s + 1.402s11. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 2m08.477s + 1.485s12. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT 2m08.518s + 1.526s13. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet 2m08.522s + 1.530s14. Javier Villa Proteam BMW 2m08.713s + 1.721s15. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW 2m08.784s + 1.792s16. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo 2m09.026s + 2.034s17. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 2m09.138s + 2.146s18. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT 2m09.282s + 2.290s19. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet 2m12.342s + 5.350s