Yvan Muller continues to thrash the World Touring Car pack in Valencia practice

Fastest in all three sectors that make up the lap - by almost 0.3 seconds in the first alone - he led his Chevrolet team-mates Alain Menu and Rob Huff by the substantial margin of 0.9s. Despite a slide through Turn 1, where he flirted with the gravel trap, his fastest time was 1m43.050s compared to Menu's 1m43.954s and Huff's 1m43.975s.

The session was interrupted by a sizeable accident that befell Proteam BMW driver Fabio Fabiani, who lost control under braking for the first corner and turned sharp right instead of left. He hit the tyre wall, ripping the front off his 320si, and spun to a halt. Fortunately, Fabiani was uninjured. The session had already started badly for the Italian squad as Fabiani's team-mate, Mehdi Bennani, spun off at Turn 14 on his out-lap.

Tiago Monteiro was best of the rest in his SEAT, but over a second off Muller's pace. Local hero Pepe Oriola was fifth quickest in another SUNRED SEAT, ahead of Kristian Poulsen (Engstler BMW) and Gabriele Tarquini, whose SEAT stopped on its out-lap with an engine malady that required a fix.

Norbert Michelisz (Zengo Dension BMW), only 15th fastest, had to briefly go off into the Turn 1 gravel to avoid Huff coming out of the pitlane for his second run. The best BMW was once again Tom Coronel's ROAL-run version, which was eighth fastest.

The Polestar Volvo of Robert Dalhgren only completed four laps, after a spin this morning, and was 13th.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet         1m43.050s
 2.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet         1m43.954s  + 0.904s
 3.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet         1m43.975s  + 0.925s
 4.  Tiago Monteiro        SUNRED SEAT       1m44.191s  + 1.141s
 5.  Pepe Oriola           SUNRED SEAT       1m44.515s  + 1.465s
 6.  Kristian Poulsen      Engstler BMW      1m44.873s  + 1.823s
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini     SUNRED SEAT       1m44.896s  + 1.846s
 8.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW          1m45.091s  + 2.041s
 9.  Aleksei Dudukalo      SUNRED SEAT       1m45.272s  + 2.222s
10.  Yukinori Taniguchi    Bamboo Chevrolet  1m45.366s  + 2.316s
11.  Javier Villa          Proteam BMW       1m45.384s  + 2.334s
12.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW      1m45.526s  + 2.476s
13.  Robert Dahlgren       Polestar Volvo    1m45.609s  + 2.559s
14.  Fredy Barth           SUNRED SEAT       1m45.734s  + 2.684s
15.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW         1m45.807s  + 2.757s
16.  Darryl O'Young        Bamboo Chevrolet  1m45.883s  + 2.833s
17.  Michel Nykjaer        SUNRED SEAT       1m45.968s  + 2.918s
18.  David Sigacev         KK BMW            1m46.705s  + 3.655s
19.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW      1m46.942s  + 3.892s
20.  Fabio Fabiani         Proteam BMW       1m52.175s  + 9.125s
21.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW