BMW Team Italy-Spain reigned in the first free practice session at Istanbul. In fact, the last few minutes turned into a battle between team-mates Duncan Huisman and Alex Zanardi.

Huisman set a time of 2:06.717 on his penultimate lap which was the best of the field until Zanardi went 0.093 of a second faster on his last lap.

The third best time of the session was set by Rickard Rydell in his SEAT Sport León.

Nicola Larini was the 8th fastest overall for Chevrolet. Team-mate Rob Huff was 14th while the third Chevrolet man, Alain Menu, didn't take part in the session.

This was due to a new engine suffering an oil leak and therefore needing to be replaced.

Behind Larini, with the 9th quickest time of 2:078.046 was Farfus at the wheel of his N.technology Alfa Romeo.

The best of the independent drivers was Proteam Motorsport's Stefano D'Aste whose lap of 2:07.877 was an excellent 7th overall.

Peter Terting only managed to complete 2 laps in his SEAT León because of a technical problem which is being investigated by his mechanics.