Farfus fastest in Okayama practice
| By Steven English |
Saturday, October 31st 2009, 00:28 GMT |
 Augusto Farfus set the best time of Saturday's first World Touring Car free practice session at Okayama as BMW set the pace.
SEAT's Yvan Muller had been quickest in Friday's test session, but Farfus and fellow BMW driver Andy Priaulx lapped nearly a second faster than yesterday's benchmark to sweep the first two places for the German manufacturer.
The majority of the drivers set their best times early in the session - Farfus's best coming on just his second flying lap - before turning their attention to race set-up for the remainder of the half hour.
Jordi Gene, Muller and Tiago Monteiro were third, fourth and fifth in their SEATs, ahead of the works BMW of Jorg Muller and the lead independent runner, Felix Porteiro.
The SEATs of Rickard Rydell and championship leader Gabriele Tarquini were eighth and ninth fastest, with Alex Zanardi completing the top 10, ahead of independent championship leader Tom Coronel.
Super GT veteran Norbertu Taniguchi was the fastest of the guest drivers this morning in 12th place, with Seiji Ara 17th, Joao Paulo de Oliveira 20th, Henry Ho 25th and Masaki Kano 26th.
Chevrolet was somewhat off the pace with Nicola Larini, Rob Huff and Alain Menu 13th, 14th and 16th. James Thompson was the best of the Ladas in 18th place but his running was limited to six laps due to a power steering failure.
The session's only stoppage came 12 minutes in when Stefano D'Aste's independent BMW went off on his first flying lap and hit the wall at the left-handed Piper corner. Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1. Augusto Farfus BMW 1m37.626s 10
2. Andy Priaulx BMW 1m37.763s +0.137 12
3. Jordi Gene SEAT 1m37.862s +0.236 9
4. Yvan Muller SEAT 1m37.867s +0.241 10
5. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1m37.954s +0.328 13
6. Jorg Muller BMW 1m37.955s +0.329 13
7. Felix Porteiro BMW 1m38.259s +0.633 11
8. Rickard Rydell SEAT 1m38.291s +0.665 8
9. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1m38.447s +0.821 11
10. Alex Zanardi BMW 1m38.591s +0.965 16
11. Tom Coronel SEAT 1m38.687s +1.061 14
12. Norbertu Taniguchi BMW 1m38.964s +1.338 12
13. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 1m38.990s +1.364 10
14. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m39.044s +1.418 9
15. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1m39.082s +1.456 15
16. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m39.091s +1.465 6
17. Seiji Ara BMW 1m39.167s +1.541 14
18. James Thompson Lada 1m39.197s +1.571 6
19. Franz Engstler BMW 1m39.295s +1.669 14
20. Joao Paulo de Oliveira SEAT 1m39.361s +1.735 13
21. Jaap van Lagen Lada 1m39.437s +1.811 12
22. Kristian Poulsen BMW 1m39.811s +2.185 12
23. Tom Boardman SEAT 1m40.421s +2.795 11
24. Kirill Ladygin Lada 1m40.965s +3.339 14
25. Henry Ho BMW 1m41.012s +3.386 15
26. Masaki Kano BMW 1m41.685s +4.059 15
27. Stefano D'Aste BMW no time 1
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