Gene fastest in opening test
SEAT's Jordi Gene topped the opening test session ahead of this weekend's second round of the World Touring Car Championship at Puebla
With the track surface relatively new, the times tumbled throughout the 30-minute session. Chevrolet's Nicola Larini described the experience as "driving on ice" in the early stages, but as the track rubbered in the times improved rapidly.
Gene, driving the SEAT Leon TDI, was the only driver to dip into the 1:24 bracket, setting a time almost half a second faster than teammate Tiago Monteiro.
Gabriele Tarquini, carrying a total of 44kg of ballast after his victory at Curitiba last month compared to the 1kg carried by Gene, was third fastest ahead of the lead Chevrolet of Alain Menu.
Augusto Farfus survived an early session spin to set the fastest BMW time, just ahead of the fourth Leon of Rickard Rydell.
In the Independents' Trophy, Exagon Engineering's Pierre-Yves Corthals was fastest in seventh overall, 1.4 seconds faster than Wiechers Sport BMW driver Stefano d'Aste.
Pos Driver Make Time Laps 1. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDI 1:42.603 12 2. Tiago Monteiro SEAT Leon TDI 1:43.089 + 0.486 13 3. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI 1:43.209 + 0.606 10 4. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 1:43.548 + 0.945 14 5. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si 1:43.587 + 0.984 14 6. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon TDI 1:43.641 + 1.038 13 7. Pierre-Yves Corthals SEAT Leon 1:43.761 + 1.158 12 8. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 1:43.822 + 1.219 13 9. Jorg Muller BMW 320si 1:43.880 + 1.277 15 10. Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 1:43.908 + 1.305 15 11. Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si 1:43.954 + 1.351 15 12. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti 1:43.962 + 1.359 14 13. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon 1:44.247 + 1.644 11 14. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si 1:44.284 + 1.681 15 15. Stefano D'aste BMW 320si 1:45.018 + 2.415 13 16. Sergio Hernandez BMW 320si 1:45.053 + 2.450 12 17. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI 1:45.532 + 2.929 6 18. Franz Engstler BMW 320si 1:47.026 + 4.423 13 19. Olivier Tielemans BMW 320si 1:47.690 + 5.087 14 20. Andrey Romanov BMW 320si 1:49.574 + 6.971 14 21. Ibrahim Okyay BMW 320si 1:53.660 +11.057 6
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