Things began to heat up in the Portuguese sun at Estoril in free practice, as Yvan Muller led the way and the times were much closer than in the rain of Friday's test.

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• Friday testing report

The SEAT Sport drivers who struggled in testing seemed to find some pace and Muller set the fastest time with a lap of 1:48.331. BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus, who predicted that most cars would dip below 1:48 today, followed him into second by 0.045 of a second. However, his was the only BMW car in the top six.

Chevrolet's Nicola Larini was third to round off a complete mix of manufacturers in the top positions. Local man Tiago Monteiro bettered his position from Friday's test to pop his SEAT into fourth, and Chevrolet's Alain Menu came into fifth only 0.163 behind the leader. Tom Coronel rounded off the top six, as the rest of the BMW cars seemed to struggle on the dry track.

Pierre-Yves Corthals set the fastest lap for the Independents' Class in thirteenth position overall.

There were a couple of incidents of cars falling off the track as Ibrahim Okyay and Viktor Shapovalov found the gravel traps, and Stefano D'Aste took to the grass at Turn 1. Also, James Thompson suffered from engine problems and was only able to complete four slow laps of the session.