Despite glimpses of promise, the Alfa Romeo drivers' suffered today around Brno with their heavy loads of "success" ballast and Augusto Farfus, Salvatore Tavano and Gianni Morbidelli will line-up in 10th, 21st and 22nd positions on the grid for tomorrow's opening FIA World Touring Car Championship at the Czech circuit.

Although Tavano posted third fastest time in his Alfa 156 during the final practice session before official qualifying got underway this afternoon, the N.technology drivers' couldn't set the fast circuit alight as they struggled with their additional weight. With 80 kg on board Farfus has the heaviest car in action this weekend, and he will be satisfied to start 10th on the grid tomorrow, bumped up after qualifying as several drivers had their times disallowed. Tavano and Morbidelli had no such glimmer of hope as they wound up 21st and 22nd in the 26-car grid and will have a huge amount of work to do tomorrow if they are to sniff the lower points positions.

PRACTICE 1

SEAT Sport driver Jordi Gené emerged again – like in yesterday’s testing – as the fastest in a calm free practice session. He completed a lap of the Brno circuit in 2:12.119 ahead of Jörg Müller for BMW Team Germany. Another SEAT man, Yvan Muller, posted the third best time. Andy Priaulx was fourth and the final driver to post a time sub 1:13.00. Robert Huff's time of 2:13.265 placed him 8th overall on the time sheet; two spots above his Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu. Despite having a new engine in his car, Nicola Larini suffered again technical problems as yesterday and he was only on the track for a matter of minutes.

From the Alfa Romeo team it was Augusto Farfus who posted the best time of 2:13.629 which placed him just outside the top 10 in 11th. GR Asia man Tom Coronel was the quickest of the independent drivers in 9th position overall after completing a lap in 2:13.327. Vincent Radermecker of Maurer Motorsport was the fastest of the four new drivers, posting the 22nd time in his Chevrolet Lacetti.

PRACTICE 2

He was second in this morning’s practice but in the second session Jörg Müller succeeded in outpacing his rivals. At the wheel of is BMW 320si he clocked a 2:14.141. Behind him in second place was fellow BMW driver Alessandro Zanardi. Salvatore Tavano put in a good performance in his Alfa Romeo 156 to achieve a time of 1:14.837 putting him third. Chevrolet's Nicola Larini was out with force after two engine changes. Things seemed to be working smoothly in this session because he was fourth fastest of the entire field; 0.936 off the pace. Gabriele Tarquini put in his best performance of the event so far by setting a 1:15.175, the sixth best time overall and quickest of the SEAT drivers.
 

Jordi Gené was 9th fastest. One spot above Gené on the timesheet was GR Asia's Maurizio Ceresoli who completed a storming lap of 1:15.488 in his new SEAT León. This meant he claimed the best time of the Independents' category ahead of team-mate Tom Coronel who was 13th overall.

Ceresoli's impressive performance was put to a halt however when he stopped at the exit of the pit lane with smoke billowing from his engine. Maurer Motorsport's Vincent Radermecker did not take part in the session after he experienced engine problems in the morning. Because the spare engine for his Chevrolet Lacetti will be delivered in the late afternoon, the Belgian driver will also miss qualifying.

QUALIFYING

Gabriele Tarquini is the man who will line up on pole for Race 1 at Brno. He set the best lap of 2:12.286 twenty minutes into the session at the wheel of his SEAT León. This was the Italian's second pole of the season, after the one he claimed in Magny-Cours. Two BMW men qualified 2nd and 3rd: Jörg Müller and Alessandro Zanardi. They both provisionally occupied the top spot during the session, but their times were eventually just 0.045 and 0.067 seconds behind Tarquini's. The top 16 times were within one second of each other.

The best Alfa Romeo result was courtesy of Augusto Farfus who completed a lap in 2:13.061 which equated to 12th on the timesheet. Robert Huff set the 4th best time of the session for Chevrolet but due to an earlier engine change he will be dropped by 10 position on the starting grid. The same will happen to Nicola Larini, who posted the 11th fastest lap.

Tom Coronel qualified ahead of the rest of the independents, his time of 2:12.755 placing him 9th overall. His team-mate, Maurizio Ceresoli did not take part in qualifying due to GR Asia engineers working on replacing his engine. As a result, he will start at the back of the grid. Exactly like Vincent Radermecker of Maurer Motorsport. An engine change was also required in Pierre-Yves Corthals' Honda Accord Euro R and therefore he too was penalised by 10 grid positions for Race 1. After the end of the session, the Stewards disallowed the fastest times of Huff, Larini and D'Aste, because they were all posted under yellow flags.