Augsto Farfus showed that he will be the man to beat at this weekend's opening double-header of the FIA World Touring Car Championship by dipping under the official lap record in pre-race testing at Curitiba in Brazil.

The local hero, 24, who won at Curitiba last year, was in imperious form as he took his Schnitzer BMW around the 2.3 mile circuit in 1:24.704 - six hundredths of a second up on his pole position time from 2007.

Shadowing him were the SEATs with Gabriele Tarquini second fastest and only eight hundredths of a second adrift. Rickard Rydell - who is returning to the team full-time after a year away - and Jordi Gene completed the top four.

As if to prove that none of the three major manufacturers competing will have a significant advantage this weekend, Nicola Larini was fifth quickest in the best of the Chevrolets.

Triple champion Andy Priaulx flew the flag for Britain in sixth place in his RBM BMW while Jorg Muller was one place further back in the second Schnitzer entry.

Both though, had been much higher up until the final two minutes, when they chose to return to the garages early.

An incident-filled session saw Tom Coronel back his Sunred SEAT into the tyres at the first corner as well as spins for Alex Zanardi and newcomer Ibrahim Okyay - both in BMWs.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport