Four Cruzes in the top five, with O'Young 3rd and Menu 5th
The final and decisive round of the WTCC has started with the two Drivers' title contenders on top of the rankings in the testing session that opened the weekend: Rob Huff posted the fastest time ahead of Yvan Muller. Alain Menu was fifth fastest, and there was a fourth Cruze in the top five, as Darryl O'Young put his Bamboo Engineering run car in third, on a track which is almost his home one for the Hong Kong born driver.
It was not an easy session, as drying track conditions added to the many difficulties of the Guia Circuit. The session ran smoothly but was red flagged once, for a short period.
Qualifying, which takes place tomorrow, will be of the utmost importance, and a big battle is expected in both Q1 and Q2 to conquer the best positions on the grids for the two races on Sunday, a factor even more crucial on a unique street circuit such as this one.
The three RML run Cruzes today sported the special livery that echoes the catchy international advertising campaign based on the WTCC successes that will be launched this coming weekend and has the very appropriate tag line: "We love being Number One. Twice in a row."
- QUOTES
Rob Huff (1st): "I am very pleased to be in Macau again and with the way the weekend started. It was a really difficult session, as the track was wet and dry at the same time, and we all had some "big moments", but the car was very well balanced and I could do a very nice time in my last lap, when the surface was almost dry."
Yvan Muller (2nd): "Not a bad session, although it did not bring much useful information, because of the alternating track conditions. I did the first two laps with rain tires, then switched to dry tires, as everybody did, although the track was still quite damp here and there."
Alain Menu (5th): "You had to be extremely careful today, as only a very thin line was almost dry, but the first impression about the car's behavior is quite positive. I was held a little bit in traffic in my fastest lap, but today's result doesn't have much importance. Tomorrow's qualifying will be the key moment and we'll see what the weather conditions will be. Currently, the forecast points to rain and that could have a great impact."
MACAU TESTING RESULT
1. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze 2m34s681
2. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze + 0s868
3. D O'Young Chevrolet Cruze + 1s785
4. T Monteiro SEAT SR León 1.6T + 1s861
5. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 1s909
For more information on Chevrolet's WTCC program, please contact Eric Nève at Chevrolet Europe:
eric.neve@gm.com, Tel : + 41 79 681 89 76
Web: http://media.chevroleteurope.com
News coming soon
