Tiago Monteiro fastest for Honda in aborted test session

Tiago Monteiro topped the time sheets for the first time for Honda Racing Team JAS in Macau’s first test session, which was red flagged after a crash for Darryl O’Young’s Bamboo Chevrolet with three minutes to go.

The Honda driver was quick throughout the session, grabbing first place from Mehdi Bennani’s BMW just before the ten-minute mark, before Rob Huff’s Chevrolet took point with a time of 2:34.789.

Rob Huff was later on an even quicker lap, setting the best first and second sectors before aborting the lap.

Future Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini then went second fastest in his Lukoil Racing Team SEAT León, before being displaced by Monteiro, who then found another 1.2 seconds to go fastest of all with five minutes to go.

The Chevrolets of Alain Menu and Yvan Muller were on better runs before the red flag, when Darryl O’Young lost control of his car at Mandarin, and bumped the front of his Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze into the tyre barrier, taking damage and leaving his bumper on the circuit, so the session was red flagged and not restarted. O’Young’s car has bent the chassis at the front and will require a lot of work to get it ready for FP1 tomorrow morning.

Italian driver Kei Cozzolino, taking over the second ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC this weekend from Alberto Cerqui, also spun at Mandarin earlier in the session but was able to continue with no damage.

Independents’ Trophy title contender Stefano D’Aste managed to go second fastest before the season finished, dropping Huff to third. Alain Menu was seventh fastest with Yvan Muller recorded as 23rd, though the Frenchman was suffering with transponder issues earlier in the session. Muller had just set the best second sector before the red flag came out.

The cars are next on track at 08:30 MST tomorrow (00:30 GMT) for Free Practice 1.