Valencia, FP1 - Muller shows the way

Yvan Muller confirmed to be fighting fit by posting the fastest lap in the first practice at Valencia this morning. The reigning world champion clocked a lap of 1:42.936, leaving his Chevrolet team-mates Alain Menu and Rob Huff six tenths behind. The Swiss racer was timed at 1:43.579 to rank second ahead of Huff (1:43.610).

Tom Coronel was the best of the rest in fourth place, driving his ROAL Motorsport BMW to complete a lap in 1:43.673, very close to Menu and Huff, while Robert Dahlgren and his Volvo C30 had a promising start, setting a provisional fastest lap of 1:43.885 in the early stages. However the Swedish driver was forced to missed the second half of the session after spinning off onto the gravel trap at Turn 1.

Although the sun was shining and the tarmac was dry and with a good grip, the braking point at the end of the pit straight proved to be tricky. After Dahlgren, Franz Engstler and Gabriele Tarquini also spun off and beached their cars there. They both had set fast laps before their incidents; Tarquini (1:44.041) was classified sixth and best of the SUNRED pack just ahead of his team-mate Tiago Monteiro (1:44.183), while Engstler (1:44.593) emerged as the fastest of the Yokohama Trophy in eighth overall, followed by Norbert Michelisz (1:44.695) and Michel Nykjær (1:44.921).

Darryl O’Young did not take part in the session due to a power steering failure.