The Three Cruzes In The Top Ten At The Challenging Valencia Track

For their first qualifying session at a European traditional circuit, the three Cruzes managed to secure a place for themselves in the top ten, a result that pleased the Chevrolet team, as the twisty and fast track of Valencia is not the best-suited to the characteristics of the Cruze.

The two free practice sessions allowed the Chevrolet drivers to work fruitfully on the balance of the car, while Q1 ended with Menu 5^th, Larini 7^th and Huff 10^th. In the ten-minute decisive Q2 session, things changed little, with Menu finishing 6^th in the day’s ranking, Huff 8^th and Larini 10th, in a sunny and warm afternoon. This puts the three Cruzes in an interesting position to score points tomorrow, especially in race 2.

· QUOTES

Alain Menu (6^th): “I am pretty happy with my result today, the car felt well and I had almost a completely clean lap in my fastest run, so I don’t think we could have done any better today. Tomorrow, I expect two tough races, as we have some very fast cars behind us”.

Rob Huff (8^th): «It is a good result for the team, and I am satisfied with my time. I made a little mistake on my fastest lap, but I don’t think I lost more than one tenth, so it is fair to say that things wouldn’t have been much different”.

Nicola Larini (10^th): “Based on what I could do in the previous sessions, I was aiming at 5^th or 6^th position, but unfortunately the set of new tyres I put on in Q2 did not perform as well, I don’t understand why”.

Mark Busfield: “We are pleased to see the three Cruzes in the top ten at this circuit, and we really took the best we could out of this qualifying session. Knowing that the characteristics of this track suit our competitors well, and that we have the heaviest cars here following our successes in Marrakech and Pau, we couldn’t possibly have done any better. Tomorrow, it will be closely-fought races, we will aim at staying in the points in race 1 and be in a good position for race 2”.

VALENCIA QUALIFYING RESULTS

1. G Tarquini SEAT León TDI 1m44s414

2. Y Muller SEAT León TDI + 0s232

3. J Gené SEAT León TDI + 0s414

4. T Monteiro SEAT León TDI + 0s482

5. A Farfus BMW 320si + 0s666

6. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 0s900

8. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze + 1s026

10. N Larini Chevrolet Cruze + &s288