Farfus puts BMW on top in Practice 1

BMW Team RBM’s Augusto Farfus posted the quickest time of the morning at the Okayama International Circuit. After switching to a 6-speed sequential gearbox, as his team-mate Andy Priaulx did yesterday, his time of 1:38.085 set halfway through the 30-minute session was good enough to keep him on top until the red flags came out stopping the session early.

With changing track conditions as the circuit dried out, Robert Dahlgren was first to set the pace, with his eventual fastest time of 1:38.605 in his Volvo C30 putting him second quickest. Alain Menu (1:38.612) was third in his Chevrolet Cruze.

Yesterday’s quickest man Rob Huff (1:38.759) was fourth this morning ahead of the fastest SEAT driver, rookie Norbert Michelisz (1:38.761) and Yvan Muller (1:38.816).

Andy Priaulx (1:38.861), Tiago Monteiro (1:38.869), Colin Turkington (1:38.918) and Tom Coronel (1:38.937) rounded out the top ten with Kristian Poulsen (1:38.981) fastest independent in 12th.

Morocco’s Mehdi Bennani didn’t complete a lap pulling off the circuit on his out-lap and being towed back to the pits with a rear axle problem. His Wiechers-Sport team-mate, Masataka Yanagida, was the cause of the late red flag with a possible engine problem that the team is still investigating which caused his BMW 320si to spill oil across the circuit.

With most the field failing to improve their times in the second half of the session, the only action was from Fredy Barth who ran wide through the gravel at the final corner but kept his SEAT going to rejoin.