CURITIBA, 1^st March 2008 – Today’s qualifying session for the first round of the 2008 World Touring Car Championship delivered a mixed bag of emotions for the Chevrolet WTCC team. Both Nicola Larini and Rob Huff were vying for a front row starting position only to have two of their three attempts aborted by incidents. Halfway through the session, qualifying was stopped when Alain Menu crashed heavily in the last corner, bringing out the red flags. On exactly that lap, Rob Huff set his fastest time in sector one. Both Huff and Larini then saw their last attempt also thwarted by yellow flags when another competitor had spun off. They both are nevertheless confident for tomorrow’s races and indeed for the season. Despite doing only four laps, Alain’s earlier time was still good enough for 11^th on the grid. The team will repair his car this evening. Menu was transported to hospital for precautionary scans, but they all turned out negative.

QUOTES

Nicola Larini (5^th): “On that last lap I was really going for it, but obviously the yellow came out when a BMW had spun in the last sector and there was no more time left in the session to try again. But the car has been consistent all through the day, always being among the top five. Today I can really say that I’m confident for the championship.”

Rob Huff (8^th): “Pity about those two excellent laps I had to abort, otherwise I would certainly have been higher up the grid. The speed of the turbocharged diesel cars on the straights is just ridiculous. On my fastest lap I had a perfectly fast exit out of the last turn, with one of them four or five car lengths behind me and by the end of the pitlane straight he was just inches form my rear bumper. The car is handling really well and we seem to have a good race pace. Being eighth on the grid is of course a very good position to be in to score points in race one and maybe be on the front row of race two.”

Ray Mallock: “Today was a good start to Rob’s and Nic’s 2008 campaigns. The speed of the turbocharged cars is a concern of course, but qualifying and racing are two completely different things so we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings.”