» WTCC Macau: Huff fastest in opening practice

Continuing his quest to finish second in the Drivers’ Championship standings, Chevrolet driver Robert Huff has headed the field in the opening practice session for the season-ending Macau round of the World Touring Car Championship.

The Briton – winner of two races this season – who was fastest in yesterday’s free test session on the Guia street circuit, edged out BMW’s Andy Priaulx to take spot with just three minutes of the session to go.

Priaulx had himself managed to survive a brush with the Armco at the Donna Maria bend during the session, and finished the session second-quickest overall.

It was three different manufacturers in the top three, with Tiago Monteiro lapping as the quickest SEAT driver, edging out fellow SEAT runner Norbert Michelisz to go third-quickest.

Newly-crowned champion Yvan Muller was fifth-quickest, just over two-tenths faster than Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu.

Next quickest was outgoing champion Gabriele Tarquini, who managed to rejoin the circuit without damage after a trip up the escape road at the Lisboa right-hander.

The only major incident was a crash for Swiss driver Fredy Barth, who spun exiting the Mandarin Bend and pitched himself into the barriers on the right-hand side of the circuit. The SEAT driver managed to limp back to pit lane for repairs.

Darryl O’Young wound up as the quickest Independent Trophy driver, placing ninth on the timesheets and using his prior experience of Macau to goo effect in the Chevrolet Lacetti.

2010 WTCC Macau Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	2:32.272	8
2.	Andy Priaulx	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 0.262	10
3.	Tiago Monteiro	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 0.689	10
4.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengö-Dension SEAT León TDI	+ 0.814	9
5.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 0.851	9
6.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1.081	8
7.	Gabriele Tarquini	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 1.375	6
8.	Tom Coronel	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 1.404	7
9.	Darryl O’Young (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 1.756	10
10.	Colin Turkington	AVIVA-COFCO WSR BMW 320si	+ 2.183	9
11.	Franz Engstler (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 2.216	9
12.	Kristian Poulsen (I)	Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si	+ 2.571	9
13.	André Couto	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 2.644	9
14.	Augusto Farfus	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 2.721	9
15.	Fredy Barth	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	+ 3.107	9
16.	Sergio Hernández (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 3.217	8
17.	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	+ 3.276	10
18.	Mehdi Bennani (I)	Wiechers Sport BMW 320si	+ 5.160	11
19.	Nobuteru Taniguchi (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 5.188	10
20.	César Campaniço (I)	Novadriver Total BMW 320si	+ 5.601	10
21.	Kevin Chen (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 5.613	9
22.	Yukinori Taniguchi (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 7.114	11
23.	Henry Ho (I)	Ho Chun Kei BMW 320si	+ 7.781	9
24.	Joseph Merszei (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 9.353	9
25.	Masaki Kano (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 11.205	9
26.	Philip Ma (I)	Jacob & Co Honda Accord Euro	+ 11.531	9
27.	Andrei Romanov (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 25.692	3
28.	Io Keong Kuok (I)	RPM Racing Honda Accord Euro	no time
29.	Kin Man Chan (I)	Andy Racing Honda Civic	no time