Farfus dominates the Chevrolets

Augusto Farfus is looking to remake himself. Favorite of the Brno round, lying in ambush behind Yvan Muller in the general classification, the Brazilian had failed in the Czech Republic. It is therefore to make up for lost points that Farfus is attacking this Portuguese weekend with great motivation. However, the BMW 320si are the heaviest cars in the field. In Porto, they have a ballast of 40kg(*), compared to zero for the Seat Leon TDi, and 10kg less for the Chevrolet Cruze. The latter, lagging behind during the last events, have therefore found a return to form. The three Cruzes ranked among the top six in the free practice session standings.

Robert Huff and Alain Menu, however, found themselves behind the BMW of Augusto Farfus, determined to leave Portugal with big points. Behind the three men, the Seat Leon TDi showed up timidly, with the 4th time of Gabriele Tarquini and the 5th time of the “regional of the stage”, Tiago Monteiro. Yvan Muller is far from the lead, with the 13th time, more than two seconds behind Farfus, his challenger. The Frenchman is notably ahead of Tom Coronel, first of the independents. The attraction also took place around the Lada stand. Indeed, the Priora was out for the first time, with the returning James Thompson at the wheel. Unfortunately, after just one lap, the Briton had to pit, experiencing problems with his gearbox. If it offers better performance than its predecessor, the 110, James Thompson will have to spend time with his engineers to find reliability.

* Except that of Alex Zanardi, to compensate for his sequential gearbox