Farfus quickest in first practice session
Augusto Farfus maintained his strong form into first practice for this
weekend's FIA World Touring Car Championship season finale in Macau with
the fastest time during an incident-filled session on Friday morning.
The BMW driver, who still has an outside chance of winning the drivers'
championship, used a bit of slipstreaming help from team-mate Andy Priaulx,
to move to the top of the timesheets with 11 minutes remaining.
Farfus was happy with how his preparations for the weekend were going -
especially as he relishes the experience of racing in Macau. "It is a
fantastic track," he said. "You are on the edge for the entire lap, and
that is what makes it so special."
Behind Farfus on the timesheet was fellow BMW driver Jorg Muller, who knows
that his role this weekend is to help his team win the manufacturers'
championship.
Chevrolet driver Rob Huff, who had briefly been quickest in the middle
stage of the session, ended up third fastest overall - ahead of BMW driver
Alex Zanardi.
SEAT duo Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini, who are the main contenders in
the fight for the drivers' crown, found there was little separating them on
track as they ended up sixth and seventh overall.
The first practice session had to be stopped twice because of incidents on
track. The first red flag came out just 10 minutes in when Henry Ho crashed
at Police and his car was left in a dangerous position on the track.
The second red flag, which brought the session to an early halt a few
minutes before its scheduled end, was caused when Lada driver Kirill
Ladygin crashed spectacularly at Mandarin Bend - rebounding into the
barriers on both sides of the track and badly damaging his car.
-credit: macu
