Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Salzburgring WTCC: Yvan Muller flies in first practice

Yvan Muller fired an early warning of intent by repeatedly dipping under lap record pace to top the opening World Touring Car practice at the Salzburgring

The Frenchman first moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1m26.391s, a full four tenths quicker than Rob Huff's 2012 benchmark, 12 minutes from the end.

That would have been enough to keep him top, but in the final seconds of the session he went faster still, posting a 1m26.279s that left him more than four tenths clear of the chasing pack.

Muller's RML Chevrolet team-mate Tom Chilton and Bamboo's Alex MacDowall were second and third respectively, the pair split by just 18 thousandths of a second.

Chilton had himself occupied top spot 10 minutes into the session, and his sector-two split remained the best of any driver.

Defending champion Huff, a winner last time out in Hungary, was fourth fastest, narrowly ahead of the Zengo Honda of Norbert Michelisz and the second Bamboo Chevrolet of James Nash.

Pepe Oriola made it two SEATs in the top seven, narrowly edging out Michel Nykjaer in the Nika Chevrolet, Tom Coronel's ROAL BMW and the Lada of James Thompson.

The Briton spent much of the session in the top six, only to be bumped down by a flurry of late improvements.

As the pace improved, a few mistakes also crept in, notably at the Turn 1 chicane where Huff, Coronel, Chilton and Franz Engstler all ran too deep.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet     1m26.279s
 2.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet     1m26.680s  + 0.401s
 3.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet  1m26.698s  + 0.419s
 4.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT      1m26.806s  + 0.527s
 5.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda       1m26.967s  + 0.688s
 6.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet  1m26.977s  + 0.698s
 7.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti SEAT       1m27.126s  + 0.847s
 8.  Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet    1m27.160s  + 0.881s
 9.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW          1m27.218s  + 0.939s
10.  James Thompson      Lada              1m27.255s  + 0.976s
11.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda             1m27.269s  + 0.990s
12.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT      1m27.373s  + 1.094s
13.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW       1m27.601s  + 1.322s
14.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda             1m27.700s  + 1.421s
15.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW      1m27.710s  + 1.431s
16.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW            1m27.712s  + 1.433s
17.  Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW      1m27.898s  + 1.619s
18.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT       1m28.236s  + 1.957s
19.  Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT       1m28.507s  + 2.228s
20.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW      1m28.723s  + 2.444s
21.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada              1m28.984s  + 2.705s
22.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT      1m32.140s  + 5.861s
23.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Tom Boardman out of Austria, Russia WTCC rounds
Next article Salzburgring WTCC: Yvan Muller stays on top in practice two

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe