Coronel tops first test at Curitiba

Tom Coronel emerged as the fastest driver in today’s test at Curitiba. At the wheel of his ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC the Dutchman posted a lap of 1:23.090 just before the end of the 30-minute session.

After the morning shake down the drivers begun to look for aspiration on the long straight and lap times improved drastically. Three other men were able to break the 1:24 mark: Huff (1:23.713), Muller (1:23.796) and Barth (1:23.864).

Tarquini (1:24.003) and Bueno (1:24.338) clocked the 5th and 6th fastest laps respectively ahead of the Liqui Moly duo of Poulsen and Engstler, with Dahlgren and his Volvo in 9th position (1:24.379).

The session was disrupted once by the red flag after 14 minutes to tow Poulsen’s BMW off the gravel trap at the Esse de Alta.

In the dying moments Taniguchi took a big risk when his Chevrolet Lacetti ran very wide at the last corner, however the Japanese racer managed to avoid crashing into the tyre-wall.
Dudukalo did not take part as his team is still working to repair the cars after the massive morning crash; nor did Villa, whose car has still some mechanical issues to be solved.

Tom Coronel said: "It was one of those prefect lap you manage to post two, three times a year. I did not make any mistake and I benefited from a double slipstream on the straight from Poulsen and Menu. I was surprised by my time, but honestly I was at my limit.

"I am very pleased, because this morning the car was driving me and I did not like it. For the afternoon test I adopted a more aggressive approach and asked for a number of set up changes. The package worked very well and I could feel I was in total control, though I did not expect such a big gap between me and the rest of the field."