Tarquini tops morning practice

The reigning champion rose to the top of the timesheet mid-way through the half hour and remained there throughout, repeatedly improving his time throughout the session.

He finished more than half a second clear of Andy Priaulx's BMW, with his SEAT team-mate Tiago Monteiro posting the third fastest time after throwing his Leon ultra-aggressively over the high kerbs at the street circuit's chicanes.

Augusto Farfus was fourth quickest in the second of the BMWs, ahead of Alain Menu in the first of the Chevrolets, Tom Coronel's SEAT and leading independent Franz Engstler's BMW.

Norbert Michelisz, who set the pace in testing yesterday, was eighth this morning, with Jordi Gene and Rob Huff rounding out the top 10. Championship leader Yvan Muller was just 13th.

The session's only major incident was local hero Mehdi Bennani crashing his BMW into the wall at Turn 4 on his first flying lap.

Pos Driver                Car              Time        Gap     Laps
 1. Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT             1m46.975s             13
 2. Andy Priaulx          BMW              1m47.589s   +0.614    12
 3. Tiago Monteiro        SEAT             1m47.663s   +0.688    13
 4. Augusto Farfus        BMW              1m47.886s   +0.911    13
 5. Alain Menu            Chevrolet        1m47.894s   +0.919    10
 6. Tom Coronel           SEAT             1m47.991s   +1.016    13
 7. Franz Engstler        BMW              1m48.034s   +1.059    12
 8. Norbert Michelisz     SEAT             1m48.055s   +1.080     7
 9. Jordi Gene            SEAT             1m48.070s   +1.095    11
10. Rob Huff              Chevrolet        1m48.073s   +1.098    10
11. Michel Nykjaer        SEAT             1m48.321s   +1.346    10
12. Fredy Barth           SEAT             1m48.958s   +1.983    11
13. Yvan Muller           Chevrolet        1m49.013s   +2.038     8
14. Stefano D'Aste        BMW              1m49.579s   +2.604    11
15. Sergio Hernandez      BMW              1m50.373s   +3.398     7
16. Harry Vaulkhard       Chevrolet        1m50.804s   +3.829    11
17. Andrey Romanov        BMW              1m52.504s   +5.529    14
18. Ismail Sbai           Chevrolet        1m53.115s   +6.140    11
19. Darryl O'Young        Chevrolet        2m08.690s  +21.715     3
20. Mehdi Bennani         BMW              no time                1