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The Three Cruzes In The Top Five In First Taste Of Europe

Menu 2nd, Huff 3rd and Muller 5th in unusually warm Zolder

2011-04-22

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The WTCC took the track in for the first time, in today’s 30-minutes testing session in Zolder, ahead of the inaugural event of the WTCC’s European tour. Despite this being a pure working session, the Cruzes did well, with Alain Menu second-fastest, Rob Huff third and Yvan Muller fifth.

The main challenge in this year seems to be how to cope with the unusually warm and dry weather, which impacts on track conditions and car behaviour. Today, temperatures reached 27° and same conditions are expected throughout the week-end.

The three Chevrolet drivers are determined to fight for victory in a track where the Chevys WTCC haven’t won yet, and to please the hundreds of guests from Belgium, the Netherlands and France that will support the team and which include a delegation of children from the local chapter of SOS Children Village, an NGO that gives shelter to kids in difficulty and which has Chevrolet among its sponsors.

On Sunday, Belgian fans will enjoy the parade of 25 vintage Chevys led by a Chevrolet Volt. The initiative, which combines the brand’s heritage and future, will take place at every European round of the 2011 WTCC to mark Chevrolet’s 100 years.

·          QUOTES

Alain Menu (2^nd): “I am satisfied with my lap time and have nothing special to report. The track is still very, very dirty: because of the dry weather, there is a lot of dust, sand and even pollen, it makes cars extremely under-steering at this stage, and I hope things will improve tomorrow when there will be more rubber on the tarmac”.

Rob Huff (3^rd): “Third-fastest on old tyres is not bad at all, especially considering that my session was disturbed by some technical gremlins, including a couple of engine cuts that occurred and disappeared unexpectedly”.

Yvan Muller (5^th): “Unfortunately, the session wasn’t very helpful, as we could not try everything I wanted to try, because of traffic, the red flag at mid-session and even some drops of rain at the very end, provoked by the very hot conditions. So, our working program has to be postponed to tomorrow’s free practice”.

ZOLDER TESTING RESULTS

1. G Tarquini               SEAT León TDI                       1m39s726

2. A Menu                   Chevrolet Cruze                   + 0s039

3. R Huff                     Chevrolet Cruze                   + 0s324

4. T Coronel                BMW 320  TCi                          + 0s406

5. Y Muller                 Chevrolet Cruze                     + 0s582