Alex MacDowall finished on top of the times during the test session for the World Touring Car Championship ahead of the first ever WTCC Race of USA at Sonoma Raceway.
The British driver, who has been joined in the bamboo engineering squad this weekend by American Robb Holland, lapped the Sonoma Raceway circuit in a 1m48.281s just before debutant Felice Tedeschi crashed out in the Proteam Motorsport BMW 320TC.
Championship leader Yvan Muller had set the early pace before Yokohama Independents’ front runner Pepe Oriola put the #74 SEAT Tuenti Racing Team SEAT Leon 1.6T on top of the times.
Oriola finished the session second fastest while the top three was completed by his SEAT Tuenti Racing Team team-mate Fernando Monje.
The top seven was occupied by Chevrolet and SEAT’s, with Championship leader Muller finishing fourth fastest while Chevrolet team-mates Rob Huff and Alain Menu sixth and seventh fastest. Lukoil Racing Team’s Gabriele Tarquini split the Chevrolet trio with the fifth fastest time of the session.
The top BMW finished 8th fastest at the hands of Stefano D’Aste, while current Yokohama Independents’ points leader, Norbert Michelisz, finished 10th fastest.
James Nash finished as the fastest of the Ford drivers in 14th, just under 2s off the pace set by MacDowall in the bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruze.
The first Free Practice session takes place tomorrow at 9am PST, 5pm BST.