Colin Turkington posted the fastest time in the first free practice session for the World Touring Car Championship in Shanghai, putting his WSR-run Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 0.393 seconds faster than Rob Huff.
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Turkington, who is driving a front-wheel drive car this weekend for the first time since 2006, posted his lap early on in the session whilst running with a qualifying set-up on his car. The Northern Irishman was significantly faster than anyone else on the circuit, and almost three tenths quicker than the fastest time in Friday’s test session.
Italian Gabriele Tarquini was third fastest, ahead of the other two work’s Chevrolet’s of Alain Menu and Yvan Muller, although Menu was only one thousandth of a second slower than Tarquini. The only other car within a second of Turkington was Dutchman Tom Coronel in sixth.
The two Tuenti Racing Team SEAT León’s of Fernando Monje and Pepe Oriola were seventh and eighth, although Oriola caused the session to be red-flagged a minute early when his SEAT stopped on the start/finish straight due to problems with an oil vapour duct.
Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro completed the top ten in their BMW and Honda’s respectively.
Alex MacDowall, the pace setter in Friday’s test session, could only manage the 18th fastest time in the session, behind his team-mate Darryl O’Young who was 16th.
Fredy Barth did not complete any laps in the session due to electronics problems.