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Suzuka WTCC: Yvan Muller fastest on Friday for RML Chevrolet

Yvan Muller beat fellow Chevrolet man Pepe Oriola and Honda's Tiago Monteiro to set the pace in World Touring Car Championship testing at Suzuka

The Frenchman, who enters the weekend on the brink of sealing a fourth WTCC crown, leapt to the top five minutes from the end of a session that was disrupted by three red flags.

His 54.081s was just enough to keep the RML Cruze in front - Oriola came within 0.022s of denying him in the final minutes - but still some way short of Alain Menu's 2012 pole time of 52.885s.

Muller and Oriola's late moves denied Honda top spot at its home track, with Montiero having to settle for third, one tenth of a second down the road.

Lada's James Thompson beat defending champion Rob Huff to fourth, with Gabriele Tarquini edging James Nash and Sonoma race-winner Tom Chilton for sixth.

Less than a quarter of a second covered the top eight drivers.

Takuya Izawa was fastest of the weekend's nine newcomers, putting his works Honda 17th overall and within one second of Muller.

Yukinori Taniguchi in the Wiechers BMW was next best in 23rd, just behind the second Lada of Mikhail Kozlovskiy.

The Russian triggered one of three stoppages when he slid into the gravel at Turn 7 midway through the 30 minutes.

Filipe de Souza, competing in a China Dragon Chevrolet, caused the first when he went off at Turn 8 just four minutes into the session.

Norbert Michelisz replicated that off seven minutes from the end, losing his Zengo Honda under braking for the final turn.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                Time     Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet           54.081s
 2.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet        54.103s  +0.022s
 3.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                   54.187s  +0.106s
 4.  James Thompson      Lada                    54.220s  +0.139s
 5.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT            54.261s  +0.180s
 6.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                   54.262s  +0.181s
 7.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet        54.304s  +0.223s
 8.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet           54.317s  +0.236s
 9.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW             54.346s  +0.265s
10.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                  54.489s  +0.408s
11.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW                54.489s  +0.408s
12.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                54.556s  +0.475s
13.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT             54.614s  +0.533s
14.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    Nika Chevrolet          54.656s  +0.575s
15.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT            54.715s  +0.634s
16.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet        54.777s  +0.696s
17.  Takuya Izawa        Honda                   54.963s  +0.882s
18.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW            55.031s  +0.950s
19.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda             55.042s  +0.961s
20.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT            55.650s  +1.569s
21.  Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT     55.697s  +1.616s
22.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                    55.890s  +1.809s
23.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Wiechers BMW            56.679s  +2.598s
24.  Henry Ho            Engstler BMW            57.051s  +2.970s
25.  Jeronimo Badaraco   Son Veng Chevrolet      57.177s  +3.096s
26.  Ka Lok Mak          RPM BMW                 57.724s  +3.643s
27.  Kin Veng Ng         China Dragon Chevrolet  57.771s  +3.690s
28.  Filipe de Souza     China Dragon Chevrolet  58.122s  +4.041s

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