Gene tops Macau warm-up
Jordi Gene topped the times in the warm-up session for the World Touring Car Championship finale in Macau on Sunday morning
With SEAT teammate Yvan Muller chasing his first WTCC crown, Gene's performance showed once again that the turbo diesels are a major force around the tricky Guia circuit.
But there was some encouragement for BMW, however, with Jorg Muller setting the second fastest time and Augusto Farfus fourth quickest. In between them was another SEAT of Tiago Monteiro.
With the session only 15 minutes long the drivers used it more to check on their car setup than worry about setting quick times.
That explained why Yvan Muller was down in 14th place in the standings, pole position man Alain Menu in 16th and joint WTCC title leader Andy Priaulx only 25th.
The session was relatively incident-free, although Sergio Hernandez did have a spin at Mandarin Bend and swiped the barriers. Alex Zanardi, who was sixth fastest, also hit trouble as he returned to the pits at the end of the session with a badly-damaged right front corner.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDI 2:32.811 2. Jorg Muller BMW 320si +0.073 3. Tiago Monteiro SEAT Leon +0.152 4. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si +0.239 5. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon +0.261 6. Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si +0.618 7. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI +0.651 8. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon +0.657 9. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti +0.659 10. Pierre-Yves Corthals SEAT Leon +0.882 11. Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti +0.938 12. Fredrik Ekblom BMW 320si +1.207 13. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si +1.242 14. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI +1.315 15. Stefano D'Aste BMW 320si +1.453 16. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti +1.476 17. Luca Rangoni BMW 320si +1.793 18. Colin Turkington BMW 320si +2.205 19. Duncan Huisman BMW 320si +2.283 20. James Thompson Alfa Romeo 156 +2.602 21. Carl Rosenblad BMW 320si +2.690 22. Franz Engstler BMW 320i +2.698 23. Maurizio Ceresoli SEAT Leon +3.328 24. Sergio Hernandez BMW 320si +3.598 25. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si +3.903 26. Miguel Freitas Alfa Romeo 156 +5.368 27. Henry Lee Jr BMW 320i +6.117 28. Andrey Romanov BMW 320i +11.440 29. David Louie BMW 320i +17.916
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