Muller puts miles on new Astra in Spain

After Jason Plato drove the car on Thursday and Friday of last week, his French team-mate Yvan Muller took over on Monday and Tuesday at Albacete.

"We had quite a lot of new car problems," said Muller. "My job in Albacete was to look at where the problems were, and we examined quite a few areas such as the engine mapping to resolve them. It's a bit early to say how the car is performance-wise because, for example, I only drove for one hour on Monday, but we managed to put some miles on the car which was the main thing."

After his two days in the car at the end of last week, Plato said: "We had a few teething pains but that's what shakedowns are for, after all."

The car was run largely in the specification of this year's new regulations, and on tyres from new series supplier BF Goodrich.

"Overall, it was a moderately productive few days," said Ian Harrison, Vauxhall works team Triple Eight's director. "We have put miles on the car, despite being hampered by rain and strong winds which constantly changed the track conditions during our planned four days of tests. As with all shakedowns we have had some minor teething troubles and we've proved the regulation championship parts worked reasonably well."

Vauxhall enter the new-look championship as clear favourites in the BTC Touring class, as their only opposition from the start of the season will come from the three-car works Peugeot line-up of Matt Neal, Steve Soper and Dan Eaves. MG will join the series later in the year with X20s for Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes.

"Okay, maybe we are the favourites but there is going to be up to six Vauxhalls and some Peugeots as well," added Muller. "I'm quite sure the championship will be hard to win, just like in the past. Maybe it will be even harder because everyone will have similar cars, especially within Vauxhall. Two years ago, if you were in a Nissan, then you were guaranteed to be on the podium at every race."

Muller's next assignment is this weekend's ice racing extravaganza in France. He will attempt to compete in both the Andros Trophy, which he leads in an Opel Astra, at Andorra on Saturday before driving through the night to contest the second half of the Chamonix 24 Hour classic on Sunday in a SEAT Corboda.