Rob Huff and Yvan Muller set the pace as the World Touring Car Championship regulars completed a two-day test at Oschersleben ahead of the start of the European leg of the season.
On the opening day of the test, Huff posted the quickest time with a best lap of 1min 35.324secs which was almost a second quicker than the pole time secured by team-mate Alain Menu for the Oschersleben race last season.
Behind Huff, Gabriele Tarquini emerged with the second quickest time with a lap four-tenths of a second slower, while James Thompson produced an encouraging time in the new N.Technology Honda Accord to end up third fastest.
Augusto Farfus was the fastest of the
BMW runners in fourth, while the opening day of running also marked the first appearance of the Russian Bears Motorsport Lada 110. Viktor Shapovalov completed 15 laps in the car before an engine failure sidelined the car for the rest of the day but was some five seconds off the pace.
Having been seventh quickest on day one, Yvan Muller then hit the front for SEAT on day two with a lap of 1min 35.227secs being the quickest overall from the two days of running. Chevrolet continued to run strongly with Nicola Larini taking over at the wheel from Huff and going second quickest, a tenth of a second back from the Leon TDi, with Farfus slotting into third.
Thompson continued to put more miles on the Honda and was eighth quickest but the Briton was happy with how the test had panned out.
"With only free practice left at Valencia before we race, it was essential that we focused on assessing the car under race conditions," he said. "We have worked a lot on the car's development and needed to see where it was at with little over a week to go. We practiced various race starts as well as tyre duration."
After the first day engine issue, the Lada was back on track, with both Shapovalov and Jaap van Lagen spending time at the wheel.
![Yvan Muller - SEAT Sport SEAT Leon TDI [pic credit: FIA WTCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/412983.jpg)
