Alain Menu - Photo Credit: fiawtcc.com
Alain Menu recorded the fastest time in the Friday test session ahead of the WTCC Race of China at Shanghai's Tianma Circuit.
The Chevrolet driver moved ahead of Robert Dahlgren and Colin Turkington at the very end of the session with a time of 1:05.978.
That lap was 0.039s quicker than Volvo's Dahlgren and 0.125s better than Wiechers BMW driver Turkington's.
Title rivals and Chevrolet teammates Rob Huff and Yvan Muller were fourth and fifth respectively, separated by just 0.015s. In all, the top five were covered by just 0.153s.
Tom Coronel was sixth off the back of his victory for ROAL in Suzuka, ahead of Engstler BMW duo Kristian Poulsen and Franz Engstler. Home favourite Darryl O'Young was ninth ahead of Javier Villa, despite the Spaniard ending up in the gravel and bringing out the red flags.
Test Session times:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:05.978 | 18 | |
| 2 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 Drive | 1:06.017 | 0.039 | 19 |
| 3 | Colin Turkington | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.103 | 0.125 | 19 |
| 4 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.116 | 0.138 | 16 |
| 5 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.131 | 0.153 | 17 |
| 6 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.757 | 0.779 | 20 |
| 7 | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 1:06.982 | 1.004 | 22 |
| 8 | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.334 | 1.356 | 18 |
| 9 | Darryl O’Young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:07.344 | 1.366 | 20 |
| 10 | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.466 | 1.488 | 16 |
| 11 | Gabriele Tarquini | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.485 | 1.507 | 16 |
| 12 | Tiago Monteiro | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:07.552 | 1.574 | 21 |
| 13 | Yukinori Taniguchi | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:07.621 | 1.643 | 19 |
| 14 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.777 | 1.799 | 21 |
| 15 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 1:07.843 | 1.865 | 23 |
| 16 | Charles Ng | KK | BMW 320 TC | 1:08.351 | 2.373 | 23 |
| 17 | Fredy Barth | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:08.844 | 2.866 | 16 |
| 18 | Pepe Oriola | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:08.981 | 3.003 | 19 |
| 19 | Michel Nykjaer | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:08.992 | 3.014 | 10 |
| 20 | Aleksei Dudukalo | SUNRED | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1:09.508 | 3.530 | 20 |
| 21 | Fabio Fabiani | Engstler | BMW 320si | 1:10.910 | 4.932 | 22 |
| 22 | Philip Ma | Proteam | BMW 320si | 1:13.674 | 7.696 | 10 |
