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Moscow WTCC: Tom Coronel fastest for BMW in practice one

Tom Coronel survived a spin to put BMW on top in the first official World Touring Car practice session at Moscow Raceway

Rob Huff edged out former team-mate Yvan Muller to put his SEAT second, while in a remarkably close session the top 16 drivers were covered by less than one second.

It was Coronel who claimed top spot, the Dutchman going clear at the session's halfway mark with a 1m43.574s that remained unbeaten over the final 15 minutes.

Moments after setting that time he then became the session's first spinner when he lost the rear of his ROAL BMW at Turn 14, heading onto the back straight.

It was one of a number of incidents of a green track surface, with Muller, his RML team-mate Tom Chilton, Michel Nykjaer, Marc Basseng, Charles Ng and WTCC newcomer Nikolay Karamyshev all having moments.

Stefano D'Aste was another caught out, sending his PB Racing BMW into the Turn 10 barriers and bringing out yellow flags that contributed to limited improvements in the final minutes.

Honda's Gabriele Tarquini, for example, had set a new overall best in the first sector, only to lose time as the yellows waved for D'Aste's incident.

The Italian, who had set the early pace, had to settle for sixth, behind RML's Tom Chilton and the Proteam BMW of Mehdi Bennani.

Nykjaer, another to enjoy a spell at the top of the timesheets, dropped to seventh at the flag, ahead of Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo Honda, works stablemate Tiago Monteiro and Karamyshev, standing in for Hugo Valente at Campos.

Lada's James Thompson was a regular top 10 runner until being bumped down to 11th in the final minutes.

Pos Driver               Team                Time      Gap        Laps
 1. Tom Coronel          ROAL BMW            1m43.574s             15
 2. Rob Huff             Munnich SEAT        1m43.703s  + 0.129s    9
 3. Yvan Muller          RML Chevrolet       1m43.794s  + 0.220s   12
 4. Tom Chilton          RML Chevrolet       1m43.798s  + 0.224s   12
 5. Mehdi Bennani        Proteam BMW         1m43.807s  + 0.233s   15
 6. Gabriele Tarquini    Honda               1m43.888s  + 0.314s   14
 7. Michel Nykjaer       Nika Chevrolet      1m43.928s  + 0.354s   15
 8. Norbert Michelisz    Zengo Honda         1m44.066s  + 0.492s   13
 9. Tiago Monteiro       Honda               1m44.219s  + 0.645s   11
10. Nikolai Karamyshev   Campos SEAT         1m44.232s  + 0.658s   12
11. James Thompson       Lada                1m44.282s  + 0.708s   12
12. Pepe Oriola          Tuenti SEAT         1m44.282s  + 0.708s   12
13. Darryl O'Young       ROAL BMW            1m44.283s  + 0.709s   14
14. Stefano D'Aste       PB BMW              1m44.367s  + 0.793s   10
15. Fredy Barth          Wiechers BMW        1m44.433s  + 0.859s   15
16. James Nash           Bamboo Chevrolet    1m44.538s  + 0.964s   15
17. Mikhail Kozlovskiy   Lada                1m44.645s  + 1.071s   14
18. Charles Ng           Engstler BMW        1m44.652s  + 1.078s   16
19. Fernando Monje       Campos SEAT         1m44.913s  + 1.339s   14
20. Franz Engstler       Engstler BMW        1m44.983s  + 1.409s   15
21. Alex MacDowall       Bamboo Chevrolet    1m45.044s  + 1.470s   15
22. Marc Basseng         Munnich SEAT        1m45.179s  + 1.605s   14
23. Rene Munnich         Munnich SEAT        1m45.554s  + 1.980s   14

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