Shanghai, FP1: Turkington tops first sessions

"I ran on a qualifying set up"

By Franck Drui

3 November 2012 - 03:58
Shanghai, FP1: Turkington tops (...)

It did not take too much to Colin Turkington to remember how to drive a front-wheel drive car. For the first time the wheel of the yellow Chevrolet Cruze, the Ulsterman emerged as the fastest in this morning’s first free practice session.

“I ran on a qualifying set up, to get used to how the cars will look like this afternoon. In the second free practice we will go for a race set up and try a long run. I really enjoy to drive the car,” he said.

Turkington’s 1:56.019 was set in the early stages of the session and nobody was able to beat it. Rob Huff posted the second fastest time of 1:56.412, demoting Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT (1:56.546) to third.

Alain Menu was classified fourth, only one thousandths of a second slower than Tarquini, with Yvan Muller (1:56.691) in fifth and Tom Coronel (1:56.878) in sixth.

The Spanish duo of Fernando Monje (1:57.333) and Pepe Oriola (1:57.354) ranked seventh and eighth respectively. Norbert Michelisz (1:57.360) and Tiago Monteiro (1:57.393) rounded off the top ten.

James Nash was the best of the Ford drivers in 15th position (1:57.851).

Two drivers had technical problems during the session: Fredy Barth could not hit the track at all for an electronics failure, and Pepe Oriola stopped alongside the pit wall when an oil vapour duct broke out. This forced the race control to red flag the session one minute earlier.

Pos. Driver Car Time
1 Colin TURKINGTON Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:56.019
2 Robert HUFF Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:56.412
3 Gabriele TARQUINI SEAT Leon WTCC 1:56.546
4 Alain MENU Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:56.547
5 Yvan MULLER Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:56.691
6 Tom CORONEL BMW 320 TC 1:56.878
7 Fernando MONJE SEAT Leon WTCC 1:57.333
8 Pepe ORIOLA SEAT Leon WTCC 1:57.354
9 Norbert MICHELISZ BMW 320 TC 1:57.360
10 Tiago MONTEIRO Honda Civic S2000 WTCC 1:57.393
11 Alberto CERQUI BMW 320 TC 1:57.544
12 Tom BOARDMAN SEAT Leon WTCC 1:57.683
13 Franz ENGSTLER BMW 320 TC 1:57.691
14 Stefano D’ASTE BMW 320 TC 1:57.772
15 James NASH Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:57.851
16 Darryl O’YOUNG Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:57.890
17 Mehdi BENNANI BMW 320 TC 1:57.946
18 Alex MACDOWALL Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:58.022
19 Charles NG BMW 320 TC 1:58.167
20 Hugo VALENTE SR Leon 1.6T 1:58.198
21 Aleksei DUDUKALO SEAT Leon WTCC 1:58.231
22 Tom CHILTON Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:58.294
23 Eric KWONG Chevrolet Cruze 2:00.433
24 Filipe de SOUZA Chevrolet Lacetti 2:01.444
25 Kevin LEONG Honda Accord Euro R 2:01.723
26 Kin Veng NG Chevrolet Cruze 2:02.724
27 Alex LIU BMW 320 si 2:06.176
28 Fredy BARTH SEAT Leon WTCC -:—.---

WTCR

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