Macau GP Thursday summary

Larini and Menu lead the way for Chevrolet

Chevrolet duo Nicola Larini and Alain Menu upstaged the fight for the World Touring Car Championship title when they topped the times during Thursday's testing session at Macau.

Larini moved to the top of the timesheets with just two minutes of the session remaining, to beat his teammate by 0.119 seconds

The pace of the Chevrolets looks set to provide an added dimension to the championship fight that is being contested by nine drivers - especially if the cars have the pace to win.

SEAT's Rickard Rydell, who was third quickest overall and is currently six points adrift of the championship lead, admitted that he could not afford for the Chevrolets to finish ahead of him if he is to have a realistic chance of the title.

"It's going to be tough," he said. "I really need to win the first race but if the Chevrolets are as quick as they looked today, then they could take the first three places and leave me down in fourth. That is not good enough for me."

Right behind Rydell was reigning WTCC champion Andy Priaulx, who had no complaints about his car. "The car feels good and I am pretty happy with the balance," he said.

Behind Priaulx was SEAT's Yvan Muller, with BMW's Duncan Huisman sixth, SEAT's James Thompson seventh and Chevrolet's Rob Huff eighth. Championship leader Augusto Farfus Jr. was 14th fastest.

The testing session was red-flagged after 20 minutes when Wiechers-Sport driver Diego Romanini crashed heavily into the barriers at R-Bend. The other major incident was when Stefano D'Aste spun down the escape road at Lisboa after losing a wheel and swiping the barriers.

-credit: www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo