05.04.2003 EUROPEAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 & 2: SATURDAY MORNING FREE PRACTICE SESSIONS
| Nicola Larini, in his Autodelta
Alfa Romeo 156 Gta, topped the times in the first free practice session.
The Italian driver beat his team-mate Gabriele Tarquini by only 94 hundredths
of a second, with ART Engineering’s Rickard Rydell was classified third
in his Volvo S60, exactly half-a-second behind Larini. Third Autodelta
man, Roberto Colciago set the fourth-fastest time, just ahead of the first
BMW drivers: Andy Priaulx and Antonio García.
The session was red flagged after twelve minutes, due to Fabio Francia’s Alfa 156 stuck in the gravel, and resumed five minutes later. Tarquini had clocked his fastest time and the session’s fastest so far, 1:53.495, just before the red flag was waved. Larini was the only top driver capable to significantly improve his time after the session resumed, and jumped into the lead. The second session was quite uneventful, with a slower track and all the teams working on refining their own cars’ set-up. The three Alfa Romeo Autodelta works cars set the fastest times in the session, with Gabriele Tarquini ahead of Nicola Larini and Roberto Colciago. Dirk Müller ranked fourth, first of BMW drivers. Lap times remained higher than those set in the first session and the only driver capable to improve (but only a bit) was SEAT’s Frank Diefenbacher. André Couto did not post a time, due to persisting engine problems. |
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