Macau: Thursday test summary

Weather: Sunny and clear
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008

Farfus fastest in FIA WTCC testing

BMW's Augusto Farfus upstaged the FIA World Touring Car Championship title contenders on Thursday when he topped the times during the pre-event testing session.

The Brazilian set the fastest time on his final lap of the 30-minute session to outpace N.Technology's James Thompson and Chevrolet's Nicola Larini.

Thompson was delighted with his second fastest time, and hopeful that he would be able to maintain the early promise throughout the rest of the weekend.

"I'm pretty chuffed actually," said Thompson, who drives a Honda Accord Euro R. "It is difficult to say how quick we will be this weekend, but the team have done an outstanding job as usual. I'm hoping we can keep this up, and if you are quick in first practice then it is usually a good indicator for the rest of the weekend."

Felix Porteiro was an encouraging fourth fastest for BMW, having briefly topped the times late on before getting knocked down the order on the final lap. Behind the Spaniard were Chevrolet duo Alain Menu and Robb Huff.

Title battlers Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini had fairly low key runs - obviously keen not to take too many risks in a test session.

Muller ended up seventh fastest, just 0.4 seconds off the best time, while Tarquini was briefly quickest midway through the session before dropping to eighth.

The session was red flagged after five minutes when Dutchman Jaap van Lagen ran wide into the barriers at R Bend and crashed. His car rebounded into the track and needed to be retrieved by safety crews.

-credit: macau.grandprix.gov.mo