The first ever FIA World Touring Car Championship meeting in Brazil got underway yesterday with an extra practice session being squeezed in ahead of today's two official practice sessions and final qualifying to allow the teams and drivers to get acclimatised with the Curitiba track. The three regular factory Alfa 156 entries of Augusto Farfus, Gianni Morbidelli and Salvatore Tavano are being joined for this weekend by the locally-run Tekprom team example which is being driven by 23-year-old Brazilian Lucas Molo.

The early signs indicated the Curitiba circuit suits the SEAT cars, as the top three times in the extra half hour duration testing session were completed by a León. Peter Terting was the fastest with a lap of 1:25.125. Fellow SEAT Sport driver, Jordi Gené was the third quickest while GR Asia's independent competitor Tom Coronel split the two with a time of 1:25.306.

The first outing of the weekend for the WTCC cars provided a taste of what is to come, with numerous drivers topping the timesheet at different stages. Andy Priaulx headed the BMWs, 0.436 seconds off Terting's time. Behind him was another SEAT driven by Rickard Rydell, while the 6th fastest time was achieved by local driver Augusto Farfus at the wheel of his N.technology Alfa 156 who posted a best lap of 1:25.770 (0.645 of a second off the fastest time) out of the 11 laps of the track he completed.