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The N.Technology
team have just taken part in an official two-day test
organised by the FIA World Touring Car Championship at
Monza, held yesterday and on Wednesday, with James Thompson
and Olivier Tielemans both getting turns behind the wheel of
an Alfa Romeo 156.
The official sessions at Monza got underway on Wednesday
morning with new recruit Olivier Tielemans carrying out the
driving duties. The 22-year-old concentrated on getting as
much practise in the car as possible and posted a best time
of 2:02.039. After completing 66 laps throughout the day,
the Dutchman is feeling confident ahead of his home round at
Zandvoort, The Netherlands on 6 May.
Roberto Colciago returned in great shape
after the dramatic crash he suffered during
the test session at Curitiba 45 days ago.
The SEAT Sport Italia driver set the fastest lap
during the first day posting in the morning a time
of 2:00.787 which
nobody was able to beat. "Honestly I did not
expect to be fastest, because I haven't recovered
100 per cent from the crash and my back is still
aching. This morning my car was very good and I
managed to get a tow that helped a bit. We are still
slower than the other cars at the end of the
straight, but I'm quite happy with my time," said
Colciago.
Andy Priaulx of BMW Team UK was the only other
driver able to break the 2:01 wall, setting the
second fastest lap in 2:00.994, meaning a gap of 0.2
seconds. BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus and
Jörg Müller clocked the third and fastest time
respectively. Only a few drivers bettered their morning times
in the afternoon session, that was topped by
Müller's 2:01.082;. Nicola Larini of Chevrolet
improved by three tenths, but remained fourth in the
classification of the day.
"I think the day
went well," said Tielemans at the end of the first day,
after he managed eighth and tenth fastest times over the two
sessions. He is in his first year of the WTCC. “We had good
weather which allowed us to get a lot of work done and I was
able to really improve my driving a lot too. I was eighth
this morning and tenth this afternoon which I am pleased
about considering this is only my second time in the car.
The team have done a lot of development on the car since
Curitiba and together with today’s testing, I feel really
good about the upcoming round at Zandvoort.”
The second and
final day of official testing took place yesterday
(Thursday) and James Thompson again demonstrated
N.Technology Alfa Romeo’s dominance at its home track,
topping the time sheets from the morning test session. In
the last official test before the Championship’s second
round, in Zandvoort, Thompson showed the Alfa Romeo 156 has
improved since last year with a best time today of 2:00.412,
compared to an equivalent 2:01.173 in 2006.
Thompson was fastest in yesterday’s first session, with a
marginal lead over the reigning champion, Andy Priaulx. This
time last year Alfa Romeo dominated three of the four tests
at Monza but the fastest time overall was set by Priaulx at
2:00.688; nearly three-tenths slower than Thompson today.
The N.Technology team is cautiously optimistic about the
implications of this improvement but acknowledges there is
still a long way to go. Thompson finished the day second
quickest, with Muller setting the fastest time, 1m59.991.
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