World Touring: Muller leads Saturday practice

World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller set the fastest time in the Saturday practice sessions at the Hungaroring on Saturday. Muller set a benchmark of 1m49.301s in the second session, outpacing Citroen team-mate Jose Maria Lopez, who had been quickest in the morning.

The track was officially declared wet before the start of the day. However, rain had ceased long before the pitlane opened, leaving only a few noticeable damp patches on the circuit.

Lopez's morning time of 1m49.494s was over a second clear of Muller, and three seconds inside the reigning WTCC champion's 2013 qualifying lap record, set in an S2000 Chevrolet Cruze.

Sebastien Loeb completed a Citroen sweep of the top three positions with the second-fastest time of the second session, albeit over three tenths adrift of his teammate's best.

Proteam's Mehdi Bennani had led the afternoon session for a lengthy period, but finished 'best of the rest' in fourth, 0.98sec behind Muller's benchmark.

Local hero Norbert Michelisz was fifth in the Zengo Honda ahead of Tom Chilton. Michelisz suffered a minor off-track moment at Turn 8 on a late effort.

Despite the isolated pools of water, there were relatively few incidents in FP1. Franz Engstler lost the back end of his rear-wheel drive BMW on the exit of Turn 7, skating across saturated grass and making light contact with the barriers.

TC2 rookie John Filippi continued after an off at Turn 9, and 2009 WTCC champion Gabriele Tarquini also incurred a minor delay by running wide at Turn 5.

Originally on Autosport.com