Valencia, FP1: Muller and Huff on top

Yvan Muller and Rob Huff were in a league of their own during the first practice session at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo this morning.

The Chevrolet duo set the fastest times – 1:43.049 for the French, 1:43.145 for his English team-mate – leaving the rest of the field more than half-a-second behind.

Alain Menu completed a Chevrolet 1-2-3 by setting the third fastest lap of 1:43.693 and edged the best SEAT drivers by a few hundredths: Pepe Oriola in fourth (1:43.720) and Gabriele Tarquini in fifth (1:43.798).

Tom Coronel emerged as the best of the BMW patrol and was classified sixth (1:43.983) ahead of Norbert Michelisz (1:44.062) and Alberto Cerqui (1:44.080).

Tiago Monteiro’s SUNRED León (1:44.626) and Alexsei Dudukalo’s SEAT León (1:44.691) rounded up the top ten.

Team Aon’s Ford Focus cars struggled to stay on the pace; eventually James Nash and Tom Chilton ranked 15th and 16th, two seconds off Muller’s fastest lap.

A few drivers had moments in this first session. Tarquini, Charles Ng and Stefano D’Aste drove wide on the grass, Isaac Tutumlu spun at Turn 5, Coronel went straight at Turn 8 and rejoined by the shortcut, and Franz Engstler was fighting against his oversteering car.