James Thompson woke up Russian motorsport fans by posting the fastest lap in this morning’s warm up session at the Moscow Raceway.

After qualifying a brilliant sixth yesterday, the LADA Sport Lukoil driver clocked a lap of 1:43.529 that stirs up high expectations for him and the Russian team for today’s racers.

Behind Thompson’s LADA Granta the BMW cars of Mehdi Bennani (1:43.833) and Fredy Barth (1:44.072) were classified second and third, with Rob Huff’s SEAT in fourth (1:44.094) and Tiago Monteiro’s Honda in fifth (1:44.108).

Pole sitter Yvan Muller set the seventh fastest lap (1:44.222), behind Tom Coronel (1:44.199).

Gabriele Tarquini joined the session in  the final minutes and posted the 14^th fastest lap before going out onto the gravel trap at Turn 10.

The first of the two back-to-back 13-lap races will start at 13.20 local time and the second will follow at 14.20.

Both races will be aired live on Eurosport from 11.15 Central European Time.