Macao : Monteiro tops the first session

Tiago Monteiro and his Honda Civic set the fastest lap in today’s test session at Macau. The Portuguese driver was on top of the time sheet when the session was red-flagged three minutes to the end and not resumed following Darryl O’Young’s incident.

Lap times dropped by nearly five seconds during the 30-minute session. Mehdi Bennani opened hostilities with a lap of 2:38.340, but his mark was soon improved by Stefano D’Aste’s 2:38.300 and Monteiro’s 2:38.037.

Halfway through the session, Bennani regained the lead with a lap of 2:36.853, then Rob Huff set the first major improvement being timed at 2:34.789. Eventually Monteiro pushed the limit forward to 2:33.908 that was still more than three seconds slower than last year’s pole position time.

D’Aste set the second fastest lap of 2:34.528, while Huff ranked third but gave the impression he could go faster, as he aborted a new lap after setting the fastest times in the first two sectors.

As usual the Guia circuit claimed some victims. Key Cozzolino, Franz Engstler and Mak Ka Lok escaped high-speed spins with nearly no damage.

The same did not apply to O’Young who spun at the Mandarin Oriental bend, crashed into the barrier head-on and bounced back to hit the opposite barrier.

Henry Ho did not complete any lap as he stopped a few metres after exiting the pits, when the fire extinguisher activated itself and filled the BMW cockpit with powder.