Yvan Muller fastest, but only just, ahead of Dahlgren

Chevrolet topped the times at the Friday test at the Donington Park circuit in the UK, with 2003 BTCC champion Yvan Muller quickest, but only just ahead of Volvo’s Robert Dahlgren.

Muller’s best lap of 1:37.194 around the GP configuration of Donington Park was the fastest in the session, but his closest challenge came from the Swedish driver/team combination of Robert Dahlgren and Volvo.

At only their third race with the 1.6 litre turbocharged engine, and the first race with the new car weight penalty removed, Dahlgren was within three-tenths of a second of the 2011 dominant Chevrolet Cruze of Muller.

Muller’s team-mates Alain Menu and Rob Huff were third and fourth quickest.

Tom Coronel was next up and the fastest of the BMWs in fifth, with Gabriele Tarquini sixth fastest and the best placed SUNRED driver, 1.4s down on reigning champion Muller.

Javier Villa was the quickest Yokohama Independents’ Trophy driver in his Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC and seventh overall.

Colin Turkington, in a one-off appearance for Wiechers-Sport, was ninth fastest and the third best placed independent and BMW driver on his first experience with the 1.6 litre turbo engine.

The session was briefly disrupted with yellow flags waved as Yukinori Taniguchi’s Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet was recovered after going off at Turn 4.

Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro, who is yet to race at Donington Park, had limited running in the SR León, and was unable to set a timed lap at the circuit.

The next session is Free Practice tomorrow morning at 9:00 Local time (BST).