Suzuka WTCC: Yvan Muller leads Chevrolet test lockout, Honda ninth

Tiago Monteiro meanwhile finished ninth fastest in what was the first competitive run-out for Honda's WTCC Civic challenger.

Muller, locked on the same number of points as Huff following a failure to score in the previous race at Sonoma, set the pre-weekend pace with a laptime of 53.129s on the Suzuka East circuit.

Huff was just fractions in arrears, ending the session just 0.96s down the road.

Alain Menu meanwhile completed a Chevrolet top-three lockout with a 53.442s, just over three tenths of a second slower than Muller.

SEAT drivers accounted for fourth through to sixth, with Gabriele Tarquini, fourth in the standings, sandwiched by Pepe Oriola and Aleksei Dudukalo.

The Russian was the last driver to get within one second of the overall pace.

Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) claimed seventh ahead of Alex MacDowall (Bamboo Chevrolet), Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz (Zengo BMW).

The session was interrupted three times by red flags, the first of which came when Tarquini spun into the gravel at Turn 4 12 minutes from the flag.

Alberto Cerqui found himself stranded with five minutes to run, before the session was finally ended 25 seconds prematurely when Charles Ng went off at Turn 1.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time      Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              53.129s
 2.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              53.225s   + 0.096s
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              53.442s   + 0.313s
 4.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            53.810s   + 0.681s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            53.826s   + 0.697s
 6.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            54.042s   + 0.913s
 7.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               54.136s   + 1.007s
 8.  Alex MacDowall        Bamboo Chevrolet       54.138s   + 1.009s
 9.  Tiago Monteiro        Honda                  54.147s   + 1.018s
10.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              54.179s   + 1.050s
11.  Darryl O'Young        Bamboo Chevrolet       54.266s   + 1.137s
12.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             54.364s   + 1.235s
13.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            54.606s   + 1.477s
14.  James Nash            Arena Ford             54.623s   + 1.494s
15.  Fernando Monje        SUNRED SEAT            54.652s   + 1.523s
16.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    54.868s   + 1.739s
17.  Hiroki Yoshimoto      SUNRED SEAT            54.902s   + 1.773s
18.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           55.340s   + 2.211s
19.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           55.349s   + 2.220s
20.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW           55.417s   + 2.288s
21.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               55.514s   + 2.385s
22.  Masaki Kano           Engstler BMW           55.974s   + 2.845s
23.  Rene Munnich          Special Tuning SEAT    55.981s   + 2.852s