Donington - Dahlgren chases Muller in Friday test

Yvan Muller set the pace in today’s test session at Donington Park, but Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo emerged as the second fastest car, very close to the reigning world champion’s Chevrolet.

Alain Menu was the first to post a significant time, completing a lap in 1:38.725 in the early minutes; soon afterwards Rob Huff improved the mark to 1:38.326 that kept him on top of the time sheet until the mid of the session.

Dahlgren ousted Huff from the lead, posting a remarkable 1:38.209 that remained the fastest lap until the last five minutes, when Muller set an impressive 1:37.194 opening a nine-tenth gap between himself and the rest of the field.

Only Dahlgren was capable to fill part of this gap with two consecutive laps of 1:37.553 and 1:37.479, leaving Menu (1:38.125) and Huff (1:38.223) well behind, in third and fourth positions respectively.

Tom Coronel was the fastest of the BMW men in fifth (1:38.585), followed by Gabriele Tarquini (1:38.640), the best of the SUNRED pack.

Javier Villa (1:38.664) topped the Yokohama Trophy in seventh, ahead of Michel Nykjær (1:38.764), Colin Turkington (1:38.813) and Pepe Oriola (1:38.839).

Tiago Monteiro was not able to post any valid time, as his SUNRED León 1.6T remained nailed into the garage while the team were trying to solve engine bugs.

The WTCC field will hit the track again tomorrow for the usual two 30-minute free practices and the 30-minute qualifying.