Farfus fastest on Friday morning
Augusto Farfus topped the times in Friday morning's free practice session for the World Touring Car Championship finale in Macau, as BMW look set to upstage the title battle between SEAT's Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini
Farfus proved that his German manufacturer will likely be the marque to beat around the famous Guia streets as he just edged out his teammate Jorg Muller.
Muller had been fastest in the early stages of the session before a lengthy red flag stoppage, caused when independent runner Sergio Hernandez clouted the wall at Faraway after getting out of shape on the entry to the sequence of bends.
His Proteam car was left stranded on the track and race officials felt it was too dangerous for the session to continue without it being retrieved.
After a delay, the session resumed with Chevrolet's Nicola Larini briefly topping the timesheet, before first Muller and then Farfus set the quickest times in the closing minutes. In the end, the two BMW drivers were separated by 0.234s.
N.Technology's James Thompson maintained the strong form he showed on Thursday to set the third quickest time.
Championship leader Yvan Muller was fourth fastest and happy with how his session had gone as he focuses his efforts on the title.
"The car feels very good," said Muller. "We are taking things step by step and not taking any risks. Of course I have to be conservative this weekend. I am not here to win the race, I am here to win the championship."
Outgoing WTCC champion Andy Priaulx was fifth fastest after a quick lap late on, with Larini sixth ahead of Menu and the other title contender, SEAT's Gabriele Tarquini.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si 2:32.510 2. Jorg Muller BMW 320si 2:32.753 +0.243 3. James Thompson Honda Accord 2:32.874 +0.364 4. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDi 2:32.874 +0.364 5. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 2:32.903 +0.393 6. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti 2:32.948 +0.438 7. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 2:33.133 +0.623 8. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDi 2:33.220 +0.710 9. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si 2:33.370 +0.860 10. Alex Zanardi BMW 320si 2:33.386 +0.876 11. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon TDi 2:33.425 +0.915 12. Rob Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 2:33.475 +0.965 13. Tiago Monteiro SEAT Leon TDi 2:33.511 +1.001 14. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon 2:33.597 +1.087 15. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDi 2:33.909 +1.399 16. Franz Engstler BMW 320si 2:35.000 +2.490 17. Andre Couto Honda Accord 2:35.266 +2.756 18. Sergio Hernandez BMW 320si 2:35.708 +3.198 19. Takayuki Aoki BMW 320si 2:36.040 +3.530 20. Manabu Orido Chevrolet Lacetti 2:36.576 +4.066 21. Andrei Romanov BMW 320si 2:38.474 +5.964 22. Jaap van Lagen Lada 110 2:38.657 +6.147 23. Matthew Marsh BMW 320si 2:38.825 +6.315 24. Kirill Ladygin Lada 110 2:38.906 +6.396 25. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 110 2:40.112 +7.602 26. Ibrahim Okyay BMW 320si 2:43.619 +11.109 27. Masaki Kano BMW 320i 2:46.482 +13.972 28. Melvin Choo BMW 320si 2:58.793 +26.283
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