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Porto WTCC: Tom Coronel's BMW fastest in first practice

Tom Coronel stole top spot with a last-gasp effort in the first World Touring Cars practice session on the streets of Porto

The ROAL BMW man snuck ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller's Chevrolet as the chequered flag flew, setting a 2m08.135s to go just over one tenth clear at the head of the standings.

Behind Muller, new Chevrolet recruit Pepe Oriola - the series' youngest winner - was third fastest in what was his first session since switching from SEAT to the Cruze.

The Spaniard had been top at the halfway mark, but was bumped down as Muller and then Coronel improved.

Honda's works duo Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, both benefitting from a 30kg weight break for the Civics, were fourth and fifth respectively.

Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo-run Civic was just one tenth of a second down the road in sixth, still within 0.5s of Coronel's benchmark.

Early pacesetter Rob Huff, a winner the last time the WTCC visited the Portuguese street circuit in 2011, was eventually pushed down to seventh.

He was still a long way clear of eighth-place man Tom Chilton, who survived a brush with the wall four minutes from the end of the session.

He was spared the title of first crasher by seconds, however, as moments earlier Hugo Valente had misjudged his braking for Turn 4 and slid off, nose-first, into the barriers.

Both men were able to return to the circuit, with Valente securing 12th at the flag.

BMW locked out the final top 10 spots through Stefano D'Aste and Mehdi Bennani, who were separated by just 0.001s.

Lada meanwhile struggled, with James Thompson its best finisher down in 21st.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW             2m08.135s
 2.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet        2m08.334s  +0.199s
 3.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet     2m08.385s  +0.250s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                2m08.441s  +0.306s
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                2m08.490s  +0.355s
 6.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda          2m08.612s  +0.477s
 7.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT         2m08.722s  +0.587s
 8.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet        2m09.294s  +1.159s
 9.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW               2m09.412s  +1.277s
10.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW          2m09.413s  +1.278s
11.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT          2m09.547s  +1.412s
12.  Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT          2m09.684s  +1.549s
13.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT         2m09.773s  +1.638s
14.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW         2m09.797s  +1.662s
15.  Nikolay Karamishev  Campos SEAT          2m09.841s  +1.706s
16.  Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet       2m10.022s  +1.887s
17.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW             2m10.084s  +1.949s
18.  Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW         2m10.564s  +2.429s
19.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet     2m10.780s  +2.645s
20.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW         2m10.780s  +2.645s
21.  James Thompson      Lada                 2m10.912s  +2.777s
22.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                 2m10.967s  +2.832s
23.  Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT  2m11.083s  +2.948s
24.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet     2m11.169s  +3.034s
25.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT         2m13.206s  +5.071s

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