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Yvan Muller holds the advantage in first Oschersleben WTCC practice

Yvan Muller fired an early warning to his World Touring Car rivals at Oschersleben by topping a wet first practice, more than three tenths of a second clear of the field

The session had initially seen all three Chevrolets locked together, with Rob Huff, Alain Menu and Muller all taking turns at the top - all three often covered by less than 0.2 seconds.

With three minutes to go however Muller dipped under the 1m50s bracket for the first time, moving more than half a second clear and ultimately sealing top spot.

There was still time to respond, as first Huff and then Menu set overall bests in the first sector. Menu was not as quick around the rest of the track however, and had to settle for second, 0.387s off Muller, while Huff half-spun in sector two to bring his own bid to a close.

Huff's error was Gabriele Tarquini's gain, with the Italian improving as the chequered flag fell to snatch third for his SUNRED Seat squad and split the three Chevrolet drivers for the first time in the session.

Huff finished fourth, the last driver to get within 1s of Muller - Robert Dahlgren in fifth finishing 1.127s off Muller in his Polestar Racing Volvo.

The tricky conditions caught out several drivers during the session, most notably BMW Proteam's Fabio Fabiani, who spun heavily into the tyres at the entrance of Turn 1, ending his session and bringing out the red flag.

Having set his fastest lap, Muller also made contact with the barriers after getting out of shape at Hasseroder - although damage was minimal and he was able to reverse and continue without fuss.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet         1m49.668s
 2.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet         1m50.055s  + 0.387s
 3.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT       1m50.176s  + 0.508s
 4.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet         1m50.233s  + 0.565s
 5.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo    1m50.795s  + 1.127s
 6.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT       1m50.927s  + 1.259s
 7.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet  1m51.433s  + 1.765s
 8.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW          1m51.463s  + 1.795s
 9.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT       1m51.568s  + 1.900s
10.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT       1m51.844s  + 2.176s
11.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT       1m51.881s  + 2.213s
12.  Stefano D'Aste      Wiechers BMW      1m52.301s  + 2.633s
13.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW      1m52.320s  + 2.652s
14.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW         1m52.617s  + 2.949s
15.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW       1m52.762s  + 3.094s
16.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW      1m52.850s  + 3.182s
17.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW       1m53.235s  + 3.567s
18.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet  1m59.123s  + 9.455s
19.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW       2m04.761s  + 15.093s
20.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT

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