BMW stay on top after Practice 1

The BMW Team RBM duo of Augusto Farfus (1:24.578) and Andy Priaulx (1:24.590) remained on top after the first practice of the day in Curitiba. Despite SEAT, Chevrolet and BMW cars exchanging the top spot throughout the session it was Farfus who posted the quickest time before an early end to the session as Harry Vaulkhard had a heavy crash at the final corner. After losing the back end of his bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti he ran wide crashing into the barrier at the Curva do Vitoria and bringing out the red flags.

Chevrolet’s Rob Huff (1:24.769) and Alain Menu (1:24.783) ended the morning third and fourth with Hungarian Norbert Michelisz impressing again, being the quickest of the SEAT cars. His time of 1:24.893 in his Zengö-Dension Team SEAT León TDI was good enough for fifth overall.

Defending champion Gabriele Tarquini (1:25.016) finished sixth ahead of SR-Sport team mate Jordi Gené (1:25.041).

Newcomer Darryl O’Young from Hong Kong was the quickest of the Independents, setting a time of 1:25.797 in his bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti.

Further down the field a slippery curb at the Esse de Alta caused problems, most notably for Sergio Hernández whose session ended after losing the back end of his BMW 320si and spinning into the barrier while trying to correct the slide. A little bit earlier at the same spot Franz Engstler had had an off-track excursion in his BMW 320si.