James Thompson woke up Russian motorsport fans by posting the fastest lap in this morning’s warm up session at the Moscow Raceway.

After qualifying a brilliant sixth yesterday, the LADA Sport Lukoil driver clocked a lap of 1:43.529 that stirs up high expectations for him and the Russian team for today’s racers.

Behind Thompson’s LADA Granta the BMW cars of Mehdi Bennani (1:43.833) and Fredy Barth (1:44.072) were classified second and third, with Rob Huff’s SEAT in fourth (1:44.094) and Tiago Monteiro’s Honda in fifth (1:44.108).

Pole sitter Yvan Muller set the seventh fastest lap (1:44.222), behind Tom Coronel (1:44.199).

Gabriele Tarquini joined the session in  the final minutes and posted the 14th fastest lap before going out onto the gravel trap at Turn 10.

The first of the two back-to-back 13-lap races will start at 13.20 local time and the second will follow at 14.20.

Both races will be aired live on Eurosport from 11.15 Central European Time.