Menu tops first Puebla practice

The Swiss set a fastest time of 1:40.755 - almost two seconds faster than SEAT driver Jordi Gene's fastest time from yesterday's half-hour test session, as lap times continued to tumble at the circuit.

Menu completed just five laps in the session because track conditions were changing too rapidly to make major setup changes, which was enough to give him fastest time by just 0.067 seconds from Gene and the leading petrol-powered SEAT of SUNRED's Tom Coronel.

There were a total of five SEATs in the top seven, with Tiago Monteiro, Gabriele Tarquini and leading Independents' Trophy contender Pierre-Yves Corthals all setting strong times. Only Chevrolet prevented a clean sweep, with Larini joining Menu near the top of the timesheets with fifth fastest overall.

ROAL Engineering's Alex Zanardi was the best of the BMWs in eighth place despite a late session crash which is likely to keep him out of today's second free practice session. The Italian edged Schnitzer Motorsport's Jorg Muller and teammate Felix Porteiro for the honour of best 320si in the session.

Defending world champion Andy Priaulx was 12th fastest as he struggled to find the right setup, just behind the SEAT Leon diesel of Rickard Rydell, with championship leader Yvan Muller completing only seven laps and setting a time good enough for 16th.

Pos  Driver            Make       Time
 1.  Alain Menu        Chevrolet  1:40.755
 2.  Jordi Gene        SEAT       1:40.822 + 0.067
 3.  Tom Coronel       SEAT       1:40.840 + 0.085
 4.  Tiago Monteiro    SEAT       1:41.245 + 0.490
 5.  Nicola Larini     Chevrolet  1:41.420 + 0.665
 6.  G.Tarquini        SEAT       1:41.497 + 0.742
 7.  P-Y.Corthals      SEAT       1:41.506 + 0.751
 8.  A.Zanardi         BMW        1:41.537 + 0.782
 9.  Jorg Muller       BMW        1:41.629 + 0.874
10.  Felix Porteiro    BMW        1:41.675 + 0.920
11.  Rickard Rydell    SEAT       1:41.688 + 0.933
12.  Andy Priaulx      BMW        1:42.073 + 1.318
13.  Robert Huff       Chevrolet  1:42.108 + 1.353
14.  Augusto Farfus    BMW        1:42.150 + 1.395
15.  Sergio Hernandez  BMW        1:42.330 + 1.575
16.  Yvan Muller       SEAT       1:42.776 + 2.021
17.  Stefano D'Aste    BMW        1:42.917 + 2.162
18.  Franz Engstler    BMW        1:43.749 + 2.994
19.  Andrey Romanov    BMW        1:43.964 + 3.209
20.  O.Tielemans       BMW        1:44.062 + 3.307
21.  Ibrahim Okyay     BMW        1:47.187 + 6.432