The Title Battle Has Started!

Four Cruzes in the top five, with O'Young 3rd and Menu 5th 

The final and decisive round of the WTCC has started with the two Drivers' title contenders on top of the rankings in the testing session that opened the weekend: Rob Huff posted the fastest time ahead of Yvan Muller. Alain Menu was fifth fastest, and there was a fourth Cruze in the top five, as Darryl O'Young put his Bamboo Engineering run car in third, on a track which is almost his home one for the Hong Kong born driver.

It was not an easy session, as drying track conditions added to the many difficulties of the Guia Circuit. The session ran smoothly but was red flagged once, for a short period. 

Qualifying, which takes place tomorrow, will be of the utmost importance, and a big battle is expected in both Q1 and Q2 to conquer the best positions on the grids for the two races on Sunday, a factor even more crucial on a unique street circuit such as this one.

The three RML run Cruzes today sported the special livery that echoes the catchy international advertising campaign based on the WTCC successes that will be launched this coming weekend and has the very appropriate tag line: "We love being Number One. Twice in a row."