The World Touring Car Championship field got their first taste of the Hungaroring in a 30 minute test session, with Chevrolet once again dominating the top of timesheets.
Alain Menu, Rob Huff and Yvan Muller moved into the top three places in the final moments of the session. Local boy Norbert Michelisz had used his track knowledge to set the pace for much of the session in the Zengo Dension BMW. He was displaced in the closing stages by the Polestar Volvo C30 of Robert Dahlgren, which surprised with its increased competitiveness at the Budapest circuit. The Swede dropped to fourth when the Chevrolet trio demonstrated their pace at the close of the session.
Behind Michelisz in fifth, Javier Villa put in a quick laptime to finish up sixth in his Proteam BMW. The Spaniard raced at the Hungaroring in each of his four seasons in GP2, winning there in 2007. Darryl O’Young was seventh in his Bamboo Chevrolet, ahead of Tom Coronel in the ROAL BMW. Mehdi Bennani was ninth for Proteam ahead of Tiago Monteiro in the best of the SUNRED SEATs.
SUNRED are debuting their new SR Leon 1.6T this weekend in the hands of Pepe Oriola, Fredy Barth and Michel Nykjaer. Oriola and Barth both got several laps in during the test, ending the session in 14th and 16th respectively, but Nykjaer was only able to manage an out-lap before returning to the pits.
Test session top ten times:
1. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1:56.858
2. Robert Huff Chevrolet 1:57.044 (+0.186)
3. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 1:57.203 (+0.345)
4. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo 1:57.396 (+0.538)
5. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 1:57.551 (+0.693)
6. Javier Villa Proteam BMW 1:57.664 (+0.806)
7. Darryl O’Young Bamboo Chevrolet 1:58.108 (+1.250)
8. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 1:58.133 (+1.275)
9. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 1:58.816 (+1.958)
10. Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 1:59.063 (+2.205)
