Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller set the pace in this morning’s first free practice session for the World Touring Car Championship at Valencia.
Frenchman Muller set a time of 1:42.936 which put him 0.643 seconds clear of team-mate Alain Menu, who was the second fastest. As per much of 2011 it was a Chevrolet 1-2-3, as Rob Huff was third just 0.674 seconds behind.
The ‘best of the rest’ was Tom Coronel, fourth, who clocked a lap of 1:43.673 to end the session within a second of Muller. The only other driver to be within that one second window was Volvo’s Roberet Dahlgren, who set the fifth fastest time. Dahlgren could perhaps have gone quicker had he not spun off in the second half of the session whilst topping the times.
Gabriele Tarquini was sixth fastest ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro – although the Italian also had a moment going into turn one and was unable to complete the session.
The top Independent driver, Franz Engstler, set the eighth fastest time before beeching his car in the turn one gravel.
Darryl O’Young failed to set a lap time in the bamboo engineering Chevrolet after suffering from an electrical fault prior to the session. His bamboo team are working on the car now and hope to have the Hong Kong driver out in time for the start of free practice two at 1030 GMT.
Top times from FP1:
1. Yvan Muller – 1:42.936
2. Alain Menu – +0.643
3. Rob Huff – +0.674
4. Tom Coronel – +0.737
5. Robert Dahlgren – +0.949
6. Gabriele Tarquini – +1.105
7. Tiago Monteiro – +1.247
8. Franz Engstler – +1.657
9. Norbert Michelisz – +1.759
10. Michel Nykjaer – +1.985