Macau: Muller still quickest
SJM Guia Race provisional pole position holder Jorg Muller stayed out of trouble in Friday morning's second free practice session to maintain BMW's domination of the weekend so far
Despite needing to make some set-up changes to his car before this afternoon's final qualifying session, Muller was pleased with how his weekend was progressing and was even happier that the improving track conditions, as more rubber was laid down, were not assisting his rivals in closing the gap to the BMW Team Germany cars.
"The car is getting a little bit better, but I think we went a little bit of the wrong way with the set-up so we will have to go back before qualifying," he said. "But I had no problems out on the track and I think everything is fine."
Muller's closest challenger was his team-mate Andy Priaulx, with the outfit's third driver Dirk Muller finding out the tough way about how difficult the Macau circuit could be. The German failed to complete a flying lap after damaging his left-rear suspension in a brush with the tyre barriers at Policia. The team will be able to fix his car before qualifying, though.
"I was on my first lap and overtaking some other cars, so I braked earlier than normal but obviously did not come off the throttle soon enough," said Dirk Muller. "I turned in, knew it was going to be close and I just brushed the barriers. The impact was not that big and I think I was a bit unlucky because I managed to bend the suspension, which meant I could not continue."
Sweden's Rickard Rydell was once again BMW's closest challenger and he believed that the 1.234 seconds gap to Muller can be closed in qualifying - although his SEAT Sport team will need to work on their set-up.
"That session was okay, but we are still not fastest," he explained. "We are trying to find something for qualifying and, although the time does not look that good so far, at least we are close to the cars ahead. Let's see what we can do."
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