Curitiba, FP1: Tarquini chases the Chevy trio

In a cool and sunny morning, Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Alain Menu set the fastest times in the first free practice session at Curitiba. Once again Gabriele Tarquini seemed the only driver capable to threaten Chevrolet’s supremacy.

The Italian driver posted the fourth fastest lap and was even able to top the time sheet in the early stages with a lap of 1:23.953, but then Muller took command with an impressive series of laps: 1:23.034, 1:22.862, 1:22.750 and 1:22.689.

Huff and Menu managed to climb to second and third, completing their best laps in 1:22.992 and 1:23.228, while Tarquini improved to 1:23.328 that was good enough for placing him fourth ahead of the bamboo-engineering duo of Michel Nykjær (1:23.563) and Alex MacDowall (1:23.649).

Just like in yesterday’s test session, Tarquini’s SEAT was the only car to squeeze among the five Chevrolet Cruzes.

Norbert Michelisz posted the seventh fastest lap (1:24.124), emerging as the best of the BMW drivers.

Tom Coronel provided a thrilling moment, spinning at the exit of the last turn. His BMW car performed a spectacular pirouette and avoided to hit the pit wall, before stalling in the middle of the track, against the traffic.