Termas de Rio Hondo, Race 2 : Lopez wins after tough battle

José María López claimed a home FIA World Touring Car Championship victory in the Main Race at WTCC Race of Argentina, battling his way past early leader Norbert Michelisz.

With a good start from second on the grid, Michelisz challenged López at Turn 1 and was able to make the lead his through the following corners. Yvan Muller also got a good run on López, who just held on to second into Turn 5. A lap later, the Frenchman capitalised on the fight in front to briefly get ahead of his team-mate López.

Michelisz was able to defend from López at Turn 5 for several laps, but it was Muller’s involvement that gave the local hero the chance to grab the lead on lap seven. Muller got inside López at Turn 7 and forced Michelisz to defend from him into Turn 9. That left the inside line open for López to claim the lead.

Muller and Michelisz immediately ran wide off track at Turn 11 and dropped down the order, promoting Tom Coronel up into second. The Dutchman tried hard to chase López, but the reigning champion was able to take a popular victory for local crowds by two seconds.

Coronel took second and the WTCC Trophy win. Rob Huff scored his second podium of the day in third for Honda, ahead of his team-mate Tiago Monteiro. Muller claimed fifth ahead of debutant Esteban Guerrieri, who recovered from a bad start to take a fine sixth place. Mehdi Bennani, Norbert Michelisz, Tom Chilton and John Filippi completed the top 10.