Rob Huff - Photo Credit: fiawtcc.com
Rob Huff claimed first blood in the World Touring Car Championship decider at Macau with the fastest time of the test session on Thursday.
The Brit was 0.868 seconds quicker than the next best driver, his Chevrolet teammate and title rival Yvan Muller. Muller leads Huff by 20 points in the drivers' standings.
The session began on a damp track, but the surface dried as the session wore on which led to the times falling considerably in the closing stages. Muller went fastest with his final attempt as the checkered flag came out, but Huff then improved significantly on that.
Darryl O'Young was a strong third quickest in his bamboo-run car to complete a top three lockout for the Chevrolet Cruze. He was 1.8s adrift of Huff though. Tiago Monteiro and Alain Menu followed closely behind.
Franz Engstler was the best of the Yokohama Trophy runners in sixth, with his teammate and Trophy points leader Kristian Poulsen just behind. Two of his rivals – Norbert Michelisz and Michel Nykjaer – were next up, with Mehdi Bennani completing the top ten.
The session began 30 minutes late due to barrier repairs necessitated by a crash in another category's practice session. After it got underway it had to be red flagged with 20 minutes remaining after Charles Ng hit the barriers at the Melco Hairpin and was forced to come to a halt a little further down the track.
Test session times:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 2:34.681 | 8 | |
| 2 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 2:35.549 | 0.868 | 8 |
| 3 | Darryl O’Young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 2:36.466 | 1.785 | 9 |
| 4 | Tiago Monteiro | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:36.542 | 1.861 | 9 |
| 5 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 2:36.590 | 1.909 | 9 |
| 6 | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 2:38.452 | 3.771 | 10 |
| 7 | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 2:39.065 | 4.384 | 8 |
| 8 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 2:39.318 | 4.637 | 10 |
| 9 | Michel Nykjaer | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:39.512 | 4.831 | 8 |
| 10 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 2:39.603 | 4.922 | 10 |
| 11 | Fredy Barth | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:40.115 | 5.434 | 10 |
| 12 | Gabriele Tarquini | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:40.445 | 5.764 | 7 |
| 13 | Pepe Oriola | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:41.111 | 6.430 | 9 |
| 14 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 2:41.733 | 7.052 | 8 |
| 15 | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 2:46.596 | 11.915 | 7 |
| 16 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2:47.029 | 12.348 | 8 |
| 17 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 Drive | 2:53.338 | 18.657 | 5 |
| 18 | Joseph Merszei | Engstler | BMW 320si | 2:54.715 | 20.034 | 7 |
| 19 | Filipe De Souza | Corsa | Chevrolet Lacetti | 3:00.927 | 26.246 | 6 |
| 20 | Lo Ka Chun | 778 Auto | Peugeot 308 | 3:01.181 | 26.500 | 9 |
| 21 | Philip Ma | Proteam | BMW 320si | 3:15.285 | 40.604 | 8 |
| 22 | Mak Ka Lok | RPM | BMW 320si | 3:15.861 | 41.180 | 5 |
| 23 | Gary Kwok | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 4:25.725 | 1:51.044 | 6 |
| 24 | Andre Couto | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 19:21.822 | 16:47.141 | 3 |
| 25 | Charles Ng | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 44:07.583 | 41:32.902 | 1 |
| 26 | Kuok Io Keong | Corsa | Chevrolet Lacetti |
