[2] Fredy Barth returned to Wiechers-Sport with the displaced Yukinori Taniguchi moving to Campos Racing alongside Fernando Monje and Hugo Valente.

[4] Yvan Muller set the pace in Friday's test session by almost two tenths of a second ahead of Tom Coronel, with Chilton completing the top three placings.

Pepe Oriola failed to set a timed lap due to power steering issues while Mehdi Bennani had a broken driveshaft on his Proteam Racing BMW.

The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team pairing of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro were ninth and tenth ensuring they would lock out the front row for race two.

Franz Engstler was one place ahead of Björk who was ineligible to score points in the nationally homologated Volvo and was therefore required to sit out Q2.

Nash briefly took fourth back from Rydell but the NIKA Racing driver soon retook the position, the two were at the head of a long train of cars.

At the end of the back straight Nash, MacDowall and Tarquini passed Rydell at the hairpin while Huff and Michelisz were running close, they came together at the first corner on lap 9.

In the Eurosport Asia Trophy, Taniguchi claimed victory with 21st place ahead of Felipe De Souza in one of the naturally aspirated Chevrolets.

Barth and Darryl O'Young came together at the final hairpin at the end of lap 7, the incident also delayed MacDowall who had dropped down the field after a slow start.

Nash lost another position to Coronel at the end of lap 8 while just up the road Muller was attacking Huff who was in turn trying to pass Michelisz for third place.