Three Cruzes In The Top Six In First Taste Of Monza
Muller, Huff and Menu show fast pace in the testing session, while Pernía familiarizes with track, car and team
MONZA, 21st May 2010 – The Chevrolet Cruze had a very positive first encounter with thelegendary Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, where it races this week-end for the first time. Whilethe fast track near Milan suits better the turbo-charged and rear-wheel drive, the three Cruzes ofYvan Muller, Rob Huff and Alain Menu managed to be among the six fastest cars in today’stesting session.
The purpose of the session was to optimize the car set-up rather than pure performance and theresult is an encouraging sign at the start of this exciting Italian week-end. Argentinean touring carstar Leonel Pernía, who is driving the fourth Chevrolet Cruze in this event, signed the 13th time, agood result taking into account that this was not only the first time he drove the Cruze but also hisdebut in Monza and in the WTCC.
• QUOTESYvan Muller (2nd): “Thirty minutes is not a lot for a testing session on such a long track asMonza, but we can be satisfied with today’s result. In my last fast lap, I tried to force the passingthrough the first chicane, but I don’t think that brings any significant advantage. As always, we willwork tonight to improve the set-up in view of tomorrow’s qualifying”.
Rob Huff (5th): «Not a bad start at all, but it is difficult to test any set-up change when you onlyhave half-an-hour of testing and the standard lap time is over 2 minutes! Tomorrow morning,during the free practice sessions, we will fine-tune the team strategy for qualifying, as towing isabsolutely key in Monza to get good positions on the grid”.
Alain Menu (6th): “We have no previous references with the Cruze in Monza and today, it wasdifficult to make any substantial change of set-up during the session, as there was not enoughtime for that. Seeing the lap times we made, I believe we have a good basis to start from andwe’ll try to optimize the car balance tomorrow morning”.
Leonel Pernía (13th): “I am quite happy with my results today, considering that everything is newfor me: the car, the team, the track and the championship! I progressed well throughout thesession and find the Cruze very nice to drive. I look forward to the de-briefing with the otherdrivers and the engineers this evening and I think I am in a position to improve my times step bystep during the rest of the week-end”.
MONZA TESTING RESULTS1. A Farfus BMW 320si 2m01s4912. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze +0s3403. T Coronel SEAT León TDI +0s5014. G Tarquini SEAT León TDI +0s5505. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze +0s6616. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze +0s73213. L Pernia Chevrolet Cruze +2s173
