SEAT leads first Valencia practice
SEAT looks set to return to form in this weekend's World Touring Car round at Valencia after dominating Saturday's first practice session
The Spanish manufacturer's Leon TDi was well off the pace in the last event at Pau, but has been granted an increase in its turbo boost pressure to 2.7 from this weekend and started strongly, filling the first three places.
Reigning champion Yvan Muller set the quickest time of the half-hour session, quarter of a second clear of SEAT Sport team-mate Rickard Rydell and half a second ahead of fellow stable-mate Gabriele Tarquini.
Tom Coronel was fourth quickest in his petrol-powered SUNRED Engineering Leon, with Nicola Larini in the first of the Chevrolets and Alex Zanardi in the fastest BMW six tenths off Muller's pace in fifth and sixth.
The fully laden factory BMW's (Zanardi's weight is calculated separately from his team-mates' due to his sequential gearbox) lined up from ninth to 11th places, one second shy of Muller.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Yvan Muller SEAT 1m44.811s 2. Rickard Rydell SEAT 1m45.063s +0.252 3. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1m45.389s +0.578 4. Tom Coronel SEAT 1m45.413s +0.602 5. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 1m45.460s +0.649 6. Alex Zanardi BMW 1m45.493s +0.682 7. Jordi Gene SEAT 1m45.505s +0.694 8. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m45.620s +0.809 9. Augusto Farfus BMW 1m45.751s +0.940 10. Andy Priaulx BMW 1m45.806s +0.995 11. Jorg Muller BMW 1m45.825s +1.014 12. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1m45.945s +1.134 13. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1m46.073s +1.262 14. Marin Colak SEAT 1m46.215s +1.404 15. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m46.375s +1.564 16. Jaap van Lagen Lada 1m46.378s +1.567 17. Felix Porteiro BMW 1m46.452s +1.641 18. Mehdi Bennani SEAT 1m46.551s +1.740 19. Franz Engstler BMW 1m46.552s +1.741 20. Stefano D'Aste BMW 1m46.581s +1.770 21. Vito Postiglione BMW 1m46.915s +2.104 22. Tom Boardman SEAT 1m47.434s +2.623 23. Kristian Poulsen BMW 1m47.594s +2.783 24. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 1m47.648s +2.837 25. Kirill Ladygin Lada 1m47.853s +3.042
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