Tarquini heads final practice
Gabriele Tarquini maintained SEAT's advantage in practice for the World Touring Car Championship finale in Macau by topping the times in the final session before qualifying
The Italian was consistently quick throughout the session and, despite a number of quick laps from fellow SEAT driver Tom Coronel that threatened his top position, Tarquini finally put in his unbeatable best effort with six minutes of practice remaining.
Coronel's fastest time was just 0.018 seconds behind however, indicating that the Dutchman could be a major threat for a strong result in his GR Asia-run car in tomorrow's two races.
Augusto Farfus was third quickest for BMW, just ahead of SEAT's Rickard Rydell and N.Technology Alfa Romeo's Andre Couto.
Reigning WTCC champion Andy Priaulx ended up sixth fastest, having experimented during the session with the slipstreaming tactics that the teams are likely to use to boost their qualifying times this afternoon.
Although Priaulx's main title rival Yvan Muller was down in 11th spot on the timesheets, BMW are still wary of the threat that SEAT will pose when they show their full potential in qualifying.
"It's difficult," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen. "We see Andy is doing a perfect job in the second sector but he is obviously lacking torque and top speed on the main straight and it will be quite difficult to keep the upper hand here."
Chevrolet teammates Rob Huff and Alain Menu were seventh and eighth fastest, ahead of SEAT's Tiago Monteiro and Duncan Huismann in the Team Aviva-run BMW.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI 2:34.005 2. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon 2:34.023 + 0.018 3. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si 2:34.206 + 0.201 4. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon 2:34.235 + 0.230 5. Andre Couto Alfa Romeo 156 2:34.346 + 0.341 6. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 2:34.388 + 0.383 7. Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 2:34.559 + 0.554 8. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 2:34.605 + 0.600 9. Tiago Monteiro SEAT Leon 2:34.640 + 0.635 10. Duncan Huisman BMW 320si 2:34.867 + 0.862 11. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI 2:34.890 + 0.885 12. James Thompson Alfa Romeo 156 2:34.942 + 0.937 13. Fredrik Ekblom BMW 320si 2:35.159 + 1.154 14. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti 2:35.190 + 1.185 15. Jorg Muller BMW 320si 2:35.254 + 1.249 16. Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si 2:35.408 + 1.403 17. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si 2:35.421 + 1.416 18. Pierre-Yves Corthals SEAT Leon 2:35.920 + 1.915 19. Stefano D'Aste BMW 320si 2:36.024 + 2.019 20. Colin Turkington BMW 320si 2:36.084 + 2.079 21. Luca Rangoni BMW 320si 2:36.275 + 2.270 22. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDI 2:36.435 + 2.430 23. Franz Engstler BMW 320i 2:36.442 + 2.437 24. Carl Rosenblad BMW 320si 2:36.987 + 2.982 25. Sergio Hernandez BMW 320si 2:37.202 + 3.197 26. Maurizio Ceresoli SEAT Leon 2:39.485 + 5.480 27. Miguel Freitas Alfa Romeo 156 2:39.520 + 5.515 28. Henry Lee Jr BMW 320i 2:40.573 + 6.568 29. Andrey Romanov BMW 320i 2:45.712 +11.707 30. David Louie BMW 320i 2:47.512 +13.507
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