Alain Menu posted the fastest time around the 2.2km Suzuka East circuit on Friday morning, as the World Touring Car Championship kicked off in Japan for Rounds 19 and 20 this weekend.
Click here for the full times from the test session.
The Chevrolet driver posted a best time of 53.608 seconds to go to the top of the times, beating Volvo’s Robert Dahlgren by 0.113 seconds. The pace had been improving rapidly throughout the session and Menu’s lap was posted late in the session to pip the Swedish star.
Third quickest was Rob Huff, whose times was 0.253 seconds slower than his team-mates. Tiago Monteiro was fourth, whilst championship leader Yvan Muller set the fifth quickest time.
The top BMW driver in practice was Tom Coronel as the Dutchman set a time of 54.409 seconds to go sixth – eight tenths slower than Menu.
Gabriele Tarquini was the fastest SUNRED driver in seventh, with local rally hero Toshihiro Arai setting the eighth quickest time on his first-ever weekend in the WTCC in a fourth works Chevrolet Cruze.
Darryl O’Young was the fastest Yokohama driver’s trophy competitor in ninth, just over a second off the pace. WTCC returnee Colin Turkington posted the tenth fastest lap on his return to the series with Wiechers-Sport – Turkington is replacing Stefano D’Aste in the team’s sole BMW this weekend.
The only siginificant incident during the half-hour session occurred when Norbert Michelisz, who was 15th quickest, spun into the gravel and damaged his front splitter.
There are three drivers making their WTCC début’s this weekend – Toshihiro Arai for Chevrolet (8th), Hiroki Yoshimoto for SUNRED (14th) and Charles Ng for Engstler (22nd).