Alain Menu fastest in first World Touring Car session at Tianma in China
Alain Menu was quickest in the Friday test session as the World Touring Car field got to grips with the Tianma circuit in China
Chevrolet driver Menu found himself in a battle for the top spot with Polestar Volvo's Robert Dahlgren and Wiechers BMW's Colin Turkington, ultimately emerging ahead with a lap of 1m05.978s right at the end.
Dahlgren was 0.039 seconds behind in second, followed by Turkington and title rivals Rob Huff and Yvan Muller in the other works Chevrolets. Just 0.153s covered the top five.
Tom Coronel was sixth for ROAL, leading a trio of BMWs with Engstler duo Kristian Poulsen and Franz Engstler next up. Darryl O'Young (Bamboo Chevrolet) and Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) completed the top 10, despite the latter causing a red flag by spinning into the Turn 4 gravel. Engstler, Poulsen, Norbert Michelisz and Mehdi Bennani all had spins too but continued.
None of the SEATs got into the top 10, with Gabriele Tarquini the best of SUNRED's sextet in 11th.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m05.978s 2. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo 1m06.017s + 0.039s 3. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW 1m06.103s + 0.125s 4. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m06.116s + 0.138s 5. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 1m06.131s + 0.153s 6. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 1m06.757s + 0.779s 7. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW 1m06.982s + 1.004s 8. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 1m07.334s + 1.356s 9. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet 1m07.344s + 1.366s 10. Javier Villa Proteam BMW 1m07.466s + 1.488s 11. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT 1m07.485s + 1.507s 12. Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 1m07.552s + 1.574s 13. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet 1m07.621s + 1.643s 14. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 1m07.777s + 1.799s 15. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 1m07.843s + 1.865s 16. Charles Ng KK BMW 1m08.351s + 2.373s 17. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT 1m08.844s + 2.866s 18. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT 1m08.981s + 3.003s 19. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT 1m08.992s + 3.014s 20. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT 1m09.508s + 3.530s 21. Fabio Fabiani Engstler BMW 1m10.910s + 4.932s 22. Philip Ma Proteam BMW 1m13.674s + 7.696s
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