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Gianni Morbidelli tops half-attended shakedown in Salzburg

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WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli was fastest of all in the ten-minute shakedown at the Salzburgring on Sunday morning. The Italian, who starts race one from second on the grid, was the fastest while many of the front-runners opted to skip the session.

Morbidelli’s time of 1:29.078 was the fastest of all, albeit over two seconds off his qualifying pace. His closest rival was that of Bas Koeten Racing’s Bas Schouten, who was three-tenths of a second behind in his SEAT León Racer.

All three WestCoast Racing Hondas took part in the session in addition to Bas Schouten, the Liqui Moly Team Engstler SEAT of Mikhail Grachev, and both of Campos Racing’s Opels.

Campos Racing have repaired Markus Östreich’s car after its qualifying incident overnight and the German was fifth fastest. Unforunately, technical problems continued to blight team-mate Fernando Monje, who spent most of the session in the pit lane.

The SEATs of Target Competition and Craft-Bamboo Lukoil all elected not to take part in the session.

The first race is due to start at 12:35 CET, with WestCoast Racing’s Kevin Gleason on pole ahead of Gianni Morbidelli and Target’s Stefano Comini.