Menu tops tight test session in Japan

Rallyman Toshihiro Arai set a promising eighth best lap

Chevrolet driver Alain Menu set the fastest lap in today’s test session at Suzuka. The Swiss was clocked at 53.605 with only a couple of minutes left in the half-an-hour session and ousted Volvo’s Robert Dahlgren from the top of the standings.

Only a few minutes earlier and at the end of an impressive learning curve, Dahlgren had posted a lap of 53.722 that was the provisional fastest one until Menu’s exploit.

This sudden change of leadership was only the peak point of the first session for the WTCC racers on Suzuka’s East Circuit, and promised extremely close competition in tomorrow’s qualifying.

Rob Huff posted the third fastest lap of 53.861, followed by Tiago Monteiro (54.177), Yvan Muller (54.200), Tom Coronel (54.409) and Gabriele Tarquini (54.448).

Rallyman Toshihiro Arai set a promising eighth best lap of 54.479 on his first outing in a WTCC car and emerged as the best of the Japanese contingent.

Competition was equally tight in the Yokohama Trophy, with Darryl O’Young setting the pace (54.615) from Colin Turkington (54.643) and Michel Nykjær (54.721), the three of them covered by only one tenth of a second.

The session was disrupted once by the red flag, after only five minutes, when Norbert Michelisz’s spun off at the Anti-banked curve ripping his front bumper apart in the process.