Mehdi Bennani fastest in China warm-up

Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani was the fastest driver in the 15 minute warm-up session at the Tianma circuit, with Robert Dahlgren second fastest in the Volvo and Bennani’s Spanish team-mate Javier Villa in third.

Bennani’s time of 1:05.850 is actually the fastest the 28-year-old from Fés has been all weekend, and was two seconds faster than the Proteam racer managed in qualifying though that was in damp conditions.

The fastest of the Chevrolets was Yvan Muller in fourth, with Alain Menu fifth quickest in the sister Chevrolet Cruze.

Tom Coronel was sixth fastest in the ROAL Motorsport BMW with the British drivers Colin Turkington and Rob Huff next up in their BMW 320 TC and Chevrolet Cruze’s respectively.

Michel Nykjaer was the fastest of the SUNRED drivers, down in 12th place, just under a second slower than Bennani’s time.

Conditions are dry ahead of this afternoon’s race, which starts at 14:55 local time (7:55 CET).