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WTCC Sonoma: Yvan Muller tops opening practice session for Chevrolet

Yvan Muller was fastest in Saturday morning's first World Touring Car Championship practice session at Sonoma

After suffering turbo trouble in Friday's test, Tom Chilton produced a greatly improved performance in his Arena Ford to take second, just 0.053s off the world champion's 1m46.398s lap.

"On Friday we had a pipe come out on the turbo, so I was effectively driving a 1.6-litre atmospheric [rather than a turbo car]," said Chilton. "We looked at the data and were quite encouraged to see that the problem was costing us 1.5s."

Muller's Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu was third fastest, ahead of the leading SEAT, that of Lukoil driver Gabriele Tarquini.

"I am really enjoying this circuit," said Tarquini. "For me, Macau is the most dangerous track on the calendar, but this circuit is really challenging and really nice."

Independent BMWs completed the top six. Hungaroring reversed-grid racewinner Norbert Michelisz's Zengo entry led Mehdi Bennani's similar Proteam machine.

The second Arena Focus of James Nash was seventh, just 0.040s ahead of Franz Engstler's BMW.

Engstler suffered a huge slide on his final timed lap, after the chequered flag had been shown, and lost his left wing mirror in light contact against Turn 8's concrete wall.

Several drivers joined Engstler in exploring the limits of adhesion. Salzburgring racewinner Stefano d'Aste brought a large amount of dust onto the circuit after an off at Turn 2.

Special Tuning's Darryl O'Young and Friday test pacesetter Alex MacDowall subsequently lost control at Turn 2, prompting officials to stop the session to allow for the circuit to be cleaned.

Others to encounter difficulties included Italian Superstars champion Alberto Cerqui, who escaped damage in a very wide off-track moment at the Carousel.

WTCC debutant Robb Holland only took to the track in the last five minutes, after the session had been restarted, and ended the morning in 20th.

Proteam has withdrawn Felice Tedeschi's BMW from this weekend's meeting, after the Italian debutant sustained heavy damage in a roll at Turn 4 during Friday's test.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              1m46.398s
 2.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             1m46.451s   + 0.053s
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              1m46.574s   + 0.176s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            1m47.009s   + 0.611s
 5.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              1m47.032s   + 0.634s
 6.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            1m47.264s   + 0.866s
 7.  James Nash            Arena Ford             1m47.306s   + 0.908s
 8.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           1m47.310s   + 0.912s
 9.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              1m47.319s   + 0.921s
10.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            1m47.328s   + 0.930s
11.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            1m47.450s   + 1.052s
12.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW           1m47.469s   + 1.071s
13.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT    1m47.732s   + 1.334s
14.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    1m47.743s   + 1.345s
15.  Fernando Monje        SUNRED SEAT            1m47.769s   + 1.371s
16.  Alex MacDowall        Bamboo Chevrolet       1m47.774s   + 1.376s
17.  Tiago Monteiro        SUNRED SEAT            1m48.030s   + 1.632s
18.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               1m48.554s   + 2.156s
19.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               1m49.082s   + 2.684s
20.  Robb Holland          Bamboo Chevrolet       1m50.193s   + 3.732s
21.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           1m51.305s   + 4.907s

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