Rob Huff set the fastest lap in today’s first practice in a foggy Chinese morning. The 30-minute session did not provide much action as the drivers seemed focusing on the set up rather than on record laps. Which was also proved by the fact that none of them spun or visited the gravel traps.
Robert Dahlgren woke up the field clocking a provisional fastest time of 1:06.173 on his first lap out of the pits, but Tom Coronel offered a quick reply with a lap of 1:05.998 that he immediately improved to 1:05.964.
However, a few seconds afterwards, Huff stopped the watch at 1:05.750 that eventually remained the session’s fastest lap though there were still 23 minutes to go.
Only Yvan Muller was able to re-shuffle the top positions with a lap of 1:06.115 that placed him in third between Coronel and Dahlgren.
Colin Turkington (1:06.196) and Kristian Poulsen (1:06.284) topped the Yokohama Trophy ranking fifth and sixth in the overall classification respectively.
Alain Menu, the fastest in yesterday’s test, set only the seventh best time of 1:06.310. Javier Villa, Franz Engstler and Mehdi Bennani rounded up the top-ten, while all the SUNRED cars were struggling and dropped to the second part of the time sheet, with Gabriele Tarquini the best of the pack in 14th (1:07.022).
Philip Ma was shown the black flag after only ten minutes, for repeatedly trespassing the limits of the track.
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | R. Huff | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:05.750 | |
| 02 | T. Coronel | BMW 320 TC | 1:05.964 | +0.214s |
| 03 | Y. Muller | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.115 | +0.365s |
| 04 | R. Dahlgren | Volvo C30 | 1:06.173 | +0.423s |
| 05 | C. Turkington | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.196 | +0.446s |
| 06 | K. Poulsen | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.284 | +0.534s |
| 07 | A. Menu | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.310 | +0.560s |
| 08 | J. Villa | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.570 | +0.820s |
| 09 | F. Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.631 | +0.881s |
| 10 | M. Bennani | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.775 | +1.025s |
| 11 | D. O’Young | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.815 | +1.065s |
| 12 | G. Tarquini | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.022 | +1.272s |
| 13 | N. Michelisz | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.029 | +1.279s |
| 14 | M. Nykjaer | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.136 | +1.386s |
| 15 | C. Ng | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.161 | +1.411s |
| 16 | T. Monteiro | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.377 | +1.627s |
| 17 | Y. Taniguchi | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:07.448 | +1.698s |
| 18 | F. Barth | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.589 | +1.839s |
| 19 | P. Oriola | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.802 | +2.052s |
| 20 | A. Dudukalo | SR Leon 1.6T | 1:08.483 | +2.733s |
| 21 | F. Fabiani | BMW 320 si | 1:09.404 | +3.654s |
| 22 | P. Ma | BMW 320 si | 1:09.988 | +4.238s |