Farfus fastest in Okayama practice

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