Macau WTCC: Rob Huff flies in free practice one

The Briton disputed the top spot with Thursday pacesetter Tiago Monteiro in the new Honda.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Monteiro moved to the head of the 29-car field a third of the way into the half-hour session, before Chevrolet driver Huff improved on the Portuguese racer's effort by 1.028 seconds with 12 minutes left on the clocks.

Monteiro narrowed the deficit in the closing minutes, but seconds before the chequered flag Huff produced a blistering lap of 1m31.899s to cement his position.

Read Huff's views on the WTCC title showdown, plus what the F3 drivers are up to in our rolling Macau GP news blog.

Alain Menu, second in the standings some 35 points adrift of Huff, was third fastest ahead of RML Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller.

Yokohama Drivers' Trophy points leader Norbert Michelisz edged out fellow BMW racer Mehdi Bennani by 0.159s to take fifth spot.

Gabriele Tarquini claimed seventh place. The 2009 WTCC champion is beginning the final weekend of his seven-year SEAT stint before moving to JAS's Honda programme.

Michelisz's fellow Independents' class contenders Stefano D'Aste and Pepe Oriola were closely matched, finishing practice one in eighth and ninth.

Former Japanese single-seater driver Kei Cozzolino continued a slightly fraught acclimatisation to the WTCC. The Italian crashed his ROAL Motorsport BMW before setting a time, and limped back to the pits with a broken front-right wheel and numerous bent panels.

Pos  Driver             Team/Car                Time       Gap
 1.  Rob Huff           Chevrolet               2m31.899s
 2.  Tiago Monteiro     Honda                   2m32.033s  + 0.134s
 3.  Alain Menu         Chevrolet               2m32.870s  + 0.971s
 4.  Yvan Muller        Chevrolet               2m33.060s  + 1.161s
 5.  Norbert Michelisz  Zengo BMW               2m33.319s  + 1.420s
 6.  Mehdi Bennani      Proteam BMW             2m33.478s  + 1.579s
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini  Lukoil SEAT             2m33.828s  + 1.929s
 8.  Stefano D'Aste     Wiechers BMW            2m34.235s  + 2.336s
 9.  Pepe Oriola        Tuenti SEAT             2m34.378s  + 2.479s
10.  Franz Engstler     Engstler BMW            2m34.812s  + 2.913s
11.  Tom Boardman       Special Tuning SEAT     2m34.961s  + 3.062s
12.  Tom Coronel        ROAL BMW                2m34.994s  + 3.095s
13.  Fredy Barth        SUNRED SEAT             2m35.096s  + 3.197s
14.  Darryl O'Young     Bamboo Chevrolet        2m35.370s  + 3.471s
15.  Alex MacDowall     Bamboo Chevrolet        2m35.437s  + 3.538s
16.  Andre Couto        Tuenti SEAT             2m35.694s  + 3.795s
17.  Charles Ng         Engstler BMW            2m35.939s  + 4.040s
18.  Tom Chilton        Arena Ford              2m36.505s  + 4.606s
19.  James Nash         Arena Ford              2m36.831s  + 4.932s
20.  Fernando Monje     Tuenti SEAT             2m37.543s  + 5.644s
21.  Aleksei Dudukalo   Lukoil SEAT             2m37.966s  + 6.067s
22.  Filipe de Souza    China Dragon Chevrolet  2m41.670s  + 9.771s
23.  Kin Veng Ng        China Dragon Chevrolet  2m42.842s  + 10.943s
24.  Celio Alves Dias   China Dragon Chevrolet  2m42.927s  + 11.028s
25.  Eurico de Jesus    Five Auto Honda         2m45.512s  + 13.613s
26.  Jo Rosa Merzsei    Engstler BMW            2m45.638s  + 13.739s
27.  Ka Lok Mak         RPM BMW                 2m46.818s  + 14.919s
28.  Kei Cozzolino      ROAL BMW
29.  Henry Ho           Five Auto BMW