Free practice: Muller's hot start

"I'm fairly happy, but normally you can compare your times with your team-mate's and see if you are competitive. I can't do that here because he's driving a different car." The difference is the 66kg of 'success' ballast between Muller's and James Thompson's Astras thanks to Thompson's win in the last round and Muller's misfire-blighted 10th place.

The really good news for Muller is that the misfire which has plagued him of late seems to have gone. The Frenchman reckoned to be 99 percent sure the problem is solved and thanked his team for the hard work it's put in on the Astra.

A surprise - and surprised - second fastest, officially, was Colin Turkington in the Team Atomic Kitten MG. The Ulsterman, though admitted that his 1m46.947s lap included an overshoot and escape road shortcut. He reckoned that his best pukka lap should have put him around eighth, as one of many coming new to Mondello.

The best genuine lap after Muller's came from works MG man Warren Hughes, with Andy Priaulx next up in the works Honda and both reckoning there would be more to come. Track time was at a premium as both sessions were red-flagged, the first after Alan Blencowe beached his BTCP Alfa and the second after Paul O'Neill understeered wide at Paddock, ripped the sump off and coated the following Dunlop curve with oil. When both Gavin Pyper and Turkington also dropped oil in the re-started second session, the quick times were hard to find once everyone had run through their set-up programmes. Add in the twisty, busy nature of the track and 30 cars and there were also plenty who found traffic on their hot laps.

Thompson manhandled his Astra round fifth quickest despite carrying maximum ballast.

Gavin Pyper returned to the series in fine form after missing the last meeting while he waited for an appeal hearing over his suspended licence. The hearing found in the Scot's favour and he set fastest BTC production time in the Team Dynamics/GA Motorsport Alfa 156 just quicker than points leader James Kaye in the Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R and Norman Simon in the Edenbridge BMW.

Yvan Muller Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m46.789s 73.35mph
Colin Turkington MG ZS 1m46.947s 73.24mph*
Warren Hughes MG ZS 1m47.548s 72.83mph
Andy Priaulx Honda Civic Type R 1m47.735s 72.20mph
James Thompson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m47.870s 72.62mph
Matt Neal Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m47.905s 72.59mph
Aaron Slight Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m47.936s 72.57mph
Paul O'Neill Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m48.054s 72.49mph
Alan Morrison Honda Civic Type R 1m48.182s 72.41mph
Anthony Reid MG ZS 1m48.241s 72.37mph
* = incorrect time, including shortcut

Gavin Pyper Alfa Romeo 156 1m53.059s 69.28mph
James Kaye Honda Civic Type-R 1m53.428s 69.06mph
Norman Simon BMW 320i1m53.901s 68.77mph