Pole-setter Alain Menu
LESS THAN ONE SECOND FOR TOP EIGHT


Media information: 17 November 2007


Qualifying for this weekend?x2019;s FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) final rounds was closely fought today in Macau with WTCC drivers relying on their Yokohama ADVANs to post increasingly fast laps.

With less than one second covering the top eight qualifiers,Chevrolet's Alain Menu clinched pole position ahead of points-leader Yvan Muller (SEAT) within seconds of the session finishing.

"This is my fifth pole of the season, which is great," said Menu. "I was in the top few for most of the session but the lap really came together at the very end of qualifying. The tyres did a great job, they delivered as usual, which is exactly what you want when racing in such small spaces. You want to know that your equipment can be relied on, leaving you free to concentrate on driving as quickly as possible."

As weather conditions cooled down, times improved dramatically with several drivers featuring at the top of the timesheets. Following Menu and Muller, SEAT team-mate Gabriele Tarquini and top BMW-qualifier Augusto Farfus will start tomorrow's first race from row two.

Remaining title contenders, Nicola Larini (Chevrolet) and James Thompson (Alfa Romeo) also qualified in the top eight with fifth and eighth place respectively whilst Andy Priaulx, currently joint points-leader with Yvan Muller, claimed 12th in his BMW 320si. Fellow BMW driver and title contender, JOrg Muller posted 15th fastest.

"Cooler temperatures allowed drivers to set faster laps at the end of the session," said Yokohama's Technical Consultant Ian Beveridge. "But to still have as many as eight drivers qualifying within one second of each other on the longest track of this year's calendar is a great record for us.

"Driving on a street circuit is crowded and difficult so to see such competitive and close lap times really highlight the ADVANs" ability to cope with that kind of environment. All four manufacturers are represented within that one-second time span, further reinforcing the Yokohama product's equal performance across the WTCC field."