Huff on top in Donington practice

Date published : 16 Jul 2011 - 08:54:59

Rob Huff's run of good form continued continued at Donington Park today, with the Briton topping the times in the World Touring Car Championship's opening practice session.Heavy rain greeted the drivers when they first took to the track, but Huff established himself at the head of the field early on. The Briton's Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller managed to knock him from the top spot as conditions improved slightly towards the end, but Huff responded with a 1m51.712s that proved beyond the reach of anyone else.Muller finished up 0.248 seconds behind him, with Porto podium finisher Tiago Monteiro third in his SUNRED SEAT, albeit almost a second off Huff's time.Robert Dahlgren was fourth-fastest in the Polestar Volvo ahead of the morning's surprise package Pepe Oriola, who showed encouraging pace right through the session and ended up fifth for SUNRED, putting the Spanish teen just ahead of Alain Menu in the third Chevrolet.Quite a few drivers were caught out by the conditions, although most of the incidents were limited to harmless spins. One of the victims was 2009 British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington, who is making a one-off appearance this weekend with the Wiechers-Sport BMW team. He finished the session in 17th, having taken a ride through the Redgate gravel along the way.Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m51.058s 2. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 1m51.306s + 0.248s 3. Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 1m52.299s + 1.241s 4. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo 1m52.311s + 1.253s 5. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT 1m52.748s + 1.690s 6. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m53.152s + 2.094s 7. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT 1m53.348s + 2.290s 8. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 1m53.467s + 2.409s 9. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 1m53.523s + 2.465s10. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW 1m53.651s + 2.593s11. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 1m53.866s + 2.808s12. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT 1m54.156s + 3.098s13. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet 1m54.503s + 3.445s14. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT 1m55.063s + 4.005s15. Javier Villa Proteam BMW 1m55.437s + 4.379s16. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 1m55.493s + 4.435s17. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW 1m55.679s + 4.621s18. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet 1m56.389s + 5.331s19. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT 1m56.463s + 5.405s20. Fabio Fabiani Proteam BMW 2m07.256s + 16.198s