Photo: Citroën Racing

Yvan Muller leads Citroën 1-2 in Nürburgring test session

Citroën’s Yvan Muller finished the first one-hour test session of the Nürburgring weekend fastest of all, in a session where the lead was contested throughout by Muller, his team-mate and championship leader José María López and Honda’s Rob Huff.

Muller set down the first benchmark of 8:52.604 after his first run as drivers slowly re-accustomed themselves to the legendary Nordschleife circuit, with the times initially more than ten seconds from the pace from 2015.

López became the first driver to dip under the 8:50 bracket with a time of 8:49.019, before Muller quickly retaliated and grabbed the top spot back with a time into the 8:45s with half the session remaining.

There was mid-session drama for Morocco race winner Tom Coronel, whose ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze developed a puncture at Turn 30 and stopped on circuit.

López then put his Citroën C-Elysée WTCC back in front with 20 minutes to go, but there was a final flurry of improvements as Rob Huff put his Honda Civic WTCC on top with a time of 8:42.220, before Yvan Muller blew that time away with an 8:39.950.

Muller’s only threat as the chequered flag waved was a final run from team-mate López, but despite being up in sectors three and four, the Argentinian’s final sector time was over 1.3 seconds slower than his team-mate and he had to settle for second, just nine-tenths of a second slower over the 25.3km lap.

Huff finished the session third with Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro fourth quickest, with Tom Chilton the fastest of the independent drivers in fifth in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

Hugo Valente was the best-placed of the Ladas in seventh, seven seconds from Muller’s pace, while Thed Björk was the quickest of the Polestar Volvo S60s in ninth.

Sabine Schmitz was 12th fastest on her WTCC return in the Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet, leading the two Chevrolets of Tom Coronel and John Filippi, as well as the SLR Citroën of Grégoire Demoustier, with Zengo Motorsport’s Ferenc Ficza mired in the field, 51 seconds off the pace and behind the best placed ETCC drivers.

Next up is Free Practice 2 at 18:45 CET.