Jörg Müller set his best time within the opening minutes of the first free practice session and it proved unbeatable.

The BMW Team Germany man completed a lap in 1:25.236 followed closely by team-mate Augusto Farfus who’s finest lap was 0.170 shy of Müller’s. Yvan Muller was third fastest for SEAT.

The top 16 drivers out of the twenty who took part in the session were all within one second.

Gabriele Tarquini and Jordi Gené from SEAT Sport rounded off the top five.

Michel Jourdain's SEAT León was repaired overnight and the Mexican took part in the session his quickest lap being 1.481 seconds off of the pace of Müller.

Roberto Colciago, the other driver involved in the incident during Friday's test sessions remains in hospital.

All three of the Chevrolet drivers featured in the top ten. Robert Huff was sixth fastest overall with Alain Menu occupying the position below and Nicola Larini in ninth. The Alfa Romeo's James Thompson was 16th fastest overall.

Sergio Hernández of Proteam Motorsport, with a time of 1:25.928, was the fastest independent driver and 11th overall, just ahead of team-mate Luca Rangoni.