Suzuka WTCC: Yvan Muller surges clear of incredibly tight field

The Frenchman, who enters the weekend on the brink of a fourth WTCC crown, pulled clear with a 54.076s that proved comfortably faster than the rest of the field.

He had almost not started the lap however, coming close to hitting team-mate Tom Chilton on the lap immediately before he hit the front. The pair were collectively jockeying for clean air on the short 1.3-mile track.

Behind Muller it was far more congested, with just over four tenths of a second covering Alex MacDowall in second and Takuya Izawa in 16th.

Norbert Michelisz, Gabriele Tarquini, Fernando Monje, Rob Huff, Marc Basseng and Tom Chilton rounded out the top eight, all getting within 0.1s of MacDowall.

Morning pacesetter Tiago Monteiro was ninth, fractions ahead of Charles Ng - the Hong Kong driver having held top spot from the opening minute to the halfway mark, when he was demoted by MacDowall.

James Nash and James Thompson squeezed into 11th and 12th respectively, meaning Tom Boardman, Pepe Oriola and Tom Coronel were among those outside the theoretical Q2 cut.

Once again there was an almost continual stream of off-track incidents, although all were recovered without the need for red flags.

Basseng and Oriola both had quick laps ruined by off-track moments, while Muller, Monteiro, Chilton and Coronel were among those who ran wide at least once during the 30 minutes.

Izawa was once again fastest of the nine newcomers in 16th. Wiechers' Yukinori Taniguchi was next best in 19th, half a second down on his compatriot.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                Time     Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet           54.076s
 2.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet        54.279s  +0.203s
 3.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda             54.303s  +0.227s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                   54.309s  +0.233s
 5.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT             54.312s  +0.236s
 6.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT            54.323s  +0.247s
 7.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT            54.324s  +0.248s
 8.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet           54.340s  +0.264s
 9.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                   54.390s  +0.314s
10.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW            54.395s  +0.319s
11.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet        54.408s  +0.332s
12.  James Thompson      Lada                    54.439s  +0.363s
13.  Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT     54.519s  +0.443s
14.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW                54.612s  +0.536s
15.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet        54.713s  +0.637s
16.  Takuya Izawa        Honda                   54.749s  +0.673s
17.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                54.875s  +0.799s
18.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW             55.079s  +1.003s
19.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Wiechers BMW            55.192s  +1.116s
20.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                  55.266s  +1.190s
21.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    Nika Chevrolet          55.270s  +1.194s
22.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT            55.387s  +1.311s
23.  Masaki Kano         Engstler BMW            55.555s  +1.479s
24.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                    55.742s  +1.666s
25.  Jeronimo Badaraco   Son Veng Chevrolet      56.371s  +2.295s
26.  Filipe de Souza     China Dragon Chevrolet  56.573s  +2.497s
27.  Henry Ho            Engstler BMW            56.673s  +2.597s
28.  Kin Veng Ng         China Dragon Chevrolet  56.910s  +2.834s
29.  Ka Lok Mak          RPM BMW                 57.524s  +3.448s