Photo: WTCC Media

Alex MacDowall fastest in Shanghai Friday testing

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Alex MacDowall was fastest of all in the first testing session at the Shanghai International Circuit in the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze, leading the works Chevrolet of Rob Huff by 0.042 seconds.

All of the Chevrolet drivers did a single installation lap then waited for ten minutes before coming out and setting their times to displace the two Lukoil Racing SEATs of Aleksei Dudukalo and Gabriele Tarquini which had gone fastest at the start of the session.

Darryl O’Young was the first Chevrolet to grab the top spot, shortly followed by Rob Huff then Yvan Muller, before Huff grabbed the position back with the times being exchanged now in the 1:56s.

Then, after languishing down in 19th place, Tiago Monteiro set a scorching lap to put the Honda Civic Super 2000 TC fastest of all with a time of 1:56.439. Monteiro looked set to lose it however, as Team Aviva-Cofco’s Colin Turkington set the best two first sectors in his Chevrolet Cruze before the red flag came out with six minutes to go.

With Turkington unable to complete his lap, all cars returned to the pits, with the session restarting shortly after.

In the final minutes, Rob Huff improved to go fastest but then was immediately outpaced by 21-year-old Alex MacDowall in the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet. MacDowall’s time of 1:56.304 was just 0.042 seconds faster than Huff’s, whilst Pepe Oriola in the SUNRED Engineering SEAT León WTCC also improved to go third fastest.

Tiago Monteiro finished fourth in the Honda Civic, with Colin Turkington fifth fastest in the Team Aviva-Cofco/West Surrey Racing-run Chevrolet Cruze.

Joint-championship leader Yvan Muller was sixth in the RML Chevrolet, with Alain Menu just outside the top ten in 11th place.

James Nash was the fastest of the Arena Motorsport Ford Focuses in 12th, with team-mate Tom Chilton 18th fastest in the 28 car strong field.

Fredy Barth was 21st on his return to the Championship in the SUNRED SEAT León WTCC, with Hugo Valente 23rd on his WTCC debut in the SR León 1.6T, just over three seconds down on MacDowall’s time.

Eric Kwong was the fastest of the five car normally aspirated contingent in 24th, six seconds off the pace in the Look Fong Racing Team-run Chevrolet Cruze LT.

The next session is FP1 which gets underway at 9:20 CST on Saturday (1:20 GMT).