Yvan Muller leads first practice on Friday in Macau

RML Chevrolet driver Yvan Muller was fastest of all in the first practice session on Friday at Macau, with a margin of over seven-tenths of a second over the Tuenti Racing Chevrolet of Pepe Oriola, with the SEAT of Rob Huff third.

Muller set the first benchmark with a time of 2:33.214 early on, with his team-mate Tom Chilton and the Tuenti Chevrolet of Oriola swapping P1 throughout the middle part of the session, before the four-time champion stamped his authority with a time of 2:32.121 with just under ten minutes remaining.

Rob Huff was able to keep his Münnich Motorsport SEAT close to the front with a time of 2:31.920, just under a tenth of a second slower than Oriola, with Tiago Monteiro again the fastest of the Honda drivers, setting the fourth fastest time in his Honda Civic.

Tom Chilton completed the top five, while the Lada Granta of James Thompson was sixth fastest, the Lada again in the top ten on its Macau debut.

Stefano D’Aste was the fastest BMW driver and Yokohama Trophy class runner, setting the eighth fastest time, while Campos Racing’s Michael Soong was the fastest in the Eurosport Asia class, 22nd overall in the SEAT León WTCC.

China Dragon Racing’s Ng Kin Veng damaged his car with an off at Police at the half-way point of the session. The Macanese driver lost control on the entry to the corner and hit the inside barrier, bouncing across to the outside and sustaining front-end damage, with Campos Racing’s Konstantins Calko then hitting the barrier in avoidance.

Ng’s car was pulled out of the way, while Calko continued around the track with damage for another three laps, despite receiving the black and orange flag from the stewards.

Norbert Michelisz also sustained minor damage to the rear of his Zengõ Motorsport Honda with an off at Lisboa, but was able to continue the session.

The next session is FP2 which gets underway at 12:15 CST.