Yvan Muller quickest in first World Touring Car practice at Valencia

The defending WTCC champion's time of 1m43.049s was a scant 0.096 seconds faster than the Briton.

Completing Chevrolet's perfect start to the weekend, Alain Menu took third spot, albeit some half a second in arrears of Muller's benchmark.

Local star Pepe Oriola continued his strong Monza form to take fourth in his Tuenti SEAT Leon. The Spanish teenager was pleased, as his time was set on particularly worn tyres.

Monza pole winner Gabriele Tarquini was fifth in his Lukoil Racing Leon, ahead of Dutchman Tom Coronel's ROAL Motorsport BMW.

Hungarian Norbert Michelisz took seventh in his Zengo Motorsport BMW, followed by Coronel's rookie ROAL team-mate Alberto Cerqui.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet            1m43.049s
 2.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet            1m43.145s  + 0.096s
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet            1m43.693s  + 0.644s
 4.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT          1m43.720s  + 0.671s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT          1m43.798s  + 0.749s
 6.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW             1m43.983s  + 0.934s
 7.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW            1m44.062s  + 1.013s
 8.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW             1m44.080s  + 1.031s
 9.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT          1m44.626s  + 1.577s
10.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT          1m44.691s  + 1.642s
11.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT  1m44.793s  + 1.744s
12.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         1m44.921s  + 1.872s
13.  Fernando Monje        SUNRED SEAT          1m44.942s  + 1.893s
14.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT  1m45.032s  + 1.983s
15.  James Nash            Arena Ford           1m45.081s  + 2.032s
16.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford           1m45.129s  + 2.080s
17.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW         1m45.194s  + 2.145s
18.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW            1m45.287s  + 2.238s
19.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet     1m45.481s  + 2.432s
20.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet     1m45.517s  + 2.468s
21.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW          1m45.688s  + 2.639s
22.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW         1m45.908s  + 2.859s
23.  Isaac Tutumlu         Proteam BMW          1m46.318s  + 3.269s
24.  Andrea Barlesi        SUNRED SEAT          1m47.123s  + 4.074s