Alain Menu tops opening test at Suzuka

Dahlgren had been the first driver to dip under the 54s barrier, going more than 0.3s clear of the field with five minutes to go.

Chevrolet still had a set of fresh rubber to use however, and it paid dividends as Alain Menu made full use to lower the benchmark to 53.608s with two minutes remaining.

Robert Huff was also on fresh rubber but couldn't match Menu or Dahlgren, eventually finishing the session in third.

His title rival and Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller finished fifth, the duo separated by the SUNRED SEAT of Tiago Monteiro. Monteiro had been fastest in the opening stages, before a red flag caused a temporary halt in proceedings.

Tom Coronel finished sixth fastest in the ROAL BMW, ahead of Gabriele Tarquini (SUNRED SEAT) and rally star Toshi Arai, making his WTCC debut in a fourth works Chevrolet this weekend.

Colin Turkington, making his WTCC return with BMW squad Wiechers-Sport, finished tenth fastest behind Darryl O'Young in the Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze.

Hiroki Yoshimoto, making his WTCC debut with the SUNRED SEAT squad, finished 14th, while fellow debutant Charles Ng (Engstler BMW) was 22nd of the 24 runners.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet         53.608s
 2.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo    53.722s  + 0.114s
 3.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet         53.861s  + 0.253s
 4.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT       54.177s  + 0.569s
 5.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet         54.200s  + 0.592s
 6.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW          54.409s  + 0.801s
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT       54.448s  + 0.840s
 8.  Toshihiro Arai      Chevrolet         54.479s  + 0.871s
 9.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet  54.615s  + 1.007s
10.  Colin Turkington    Wiechers BMW      54.643s  + 1.035s
11.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT       54.721s  + 1.113s
12.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW       54.750s  + 1.142s
13.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW      54.830s  + 1.222s
14.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    SUNRED SEAT       55.026s  + 1.418s
15.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW         55.036s  + 1.428s
16.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet  55.067s  + 1.459s
17.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW       55.068s  + 1.460s
18.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT       55.354s  + 1.746s
19.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW      55.403s  + 1.795s
20.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT       55.636s  + 2.028s
21.  Masaki Kano         KK BMW            56.158s  + 2.550s
22.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW      56.567s  + 2.959s
23.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT       56.906s  + 3.298s
24.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW       59.847s  + 6.239s