As a consequence, several cars missed the braking points and struggled to stay in control while negotiating some corners.

Lap after lap the times were significantly improved, with different cars and drivers alternating on top of the time sheet. Sébastien Loeb’s Citroën (1:41.338), Tiago Monteiro’s Honda (1:41.265), Yvan Muller’s Citroën (1:41.158), Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda (1:40.475) and Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet (1:40.130) set provisional fastest laps.

Eventually Muller was able break the 1:40. wall and posted the fastest time for good at 1:39.898. However Tarquini responded with a 1:39.962 that was only 0.064 seconds slower. Coronel (1:40.130), Monteiro (1:40.168), Loeb (1:40.306), Mehdi Bennani (1:40.831), Tom Chilton (1:40.480) and José María López (1:40.496) filled the positions between third and eight, all covered by less than six tenths.

Citroën’s rookie Ma Qing Hua ranked ninth (1:40.796) with Gianni Morbidelli (1:40.900) in tenth. James Thompson was the fastest of the LADA drivers, twelfth with a lap of 1:41.115. His team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy stopped on the track due to a technical problem.

Franz Engstler topped the TC2T class (1:43.732) despite a couple of spins at turns 12 and 15.
The second practice will start at 11:00.