MacDowall Bamboo car fastest in first working session
The World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) cars had their first taste of a US circuit yesterday as they took the track at Sonoma, California, for the first testing session which opened the inaugural series event in the United States.
Alex MacDowall, at the wheel of a Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze, posted the best lap time, making it the first time the British outfit is ahead of the field in an official session.
The three RML-run Cruzes had a good working session, with the three drivers using the half-hour testing session to discover the circuit and to work on the initial set-up simulations.
Yvan Muller was 4th fastest, with Rob Huff and Alain Menu in 6th and 7th respectively. Friday's session took place in excellent weather conditions and the team will continue workto fine tune the cars set-up ahead of qualifying.
Chevrolet leads the Manufacturers Championship and could mathematically secure the titleon home soil this weekend.
QUOTESYvan Muller (4th): It was a session devoted to learning the circuit. Unfortunately, we couldnot use the entire 30 minutes allocated as the session was red-flagged and did not resumeuntil five minutes before the end. The surface was quite slippery today and we have quite abit of work on set-up ahead of us.Rob Huff (6th): I went off into the gravel in my first lap and that resulted in a slow puncture,which I realized only a couple of laps later. That cut my session short. Eventually, I only didone fast lap. We still have a lot of work on set-up. No doubt this is a very interesting track,with a lot of uphills and downhills and many corners, which means you basically never rest.Alain Menu (7th): I went through the entire working program drafted with my engineer anddid eight laps, which is basically half a race. Its a beautiful track, but there are definitely twoor three very delicate corners and a lot of blind spots.
SONOMA TESTING RESULT1. A MacDowall Chevrolet Cruze 1m48s2812. P Oriola SEAT Len WTCC + 0s3283. F. Monje SEAT Len WTCC + 0s6984. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze + 0s9045. G Tarquini SEAT Len WTCC + 0s9506. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze + 1s0007. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 1s092
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