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Argentina, FP1: Home hero López tops WTCC Free Practice 1

In warm and dry conditions

By Franck Drui

7 March 2015 - 13:59

José María López has gone fastest in Free Practice 1 for WTCC Race of Argentina as three manufacturers filled the top seven places.

In warm and dry conditions the 2014 FIA World Touring Car Championship winner set a best lap of 1m47.922s in his factory Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

Portugal’s Tiago Monteiro (Honda Civic WTCC) was second fastest, lapping the 4.806-kilometre Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo circuit 0.465s slower than the Argentine hero, a three-time winner of his home WTCC race.

Mehdi Bennani, one of the leading contenders for Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy honours this season, was third quickest for Sébastien Loeb Racing with team owner and works Citroën driver Loeb fourth.

Four-time WTCC champion Yvan Muller was fifth, Gabriele Tarquini sixth and Rob Huff seventh in the all-new LADA Vesta. Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 driver Tom Chilton was eighth quickest, Dušan Borković ninth and Norbert Michelisz 10th.

Tom Coronel was delayed when he picked up a front-left puncture on his Chevrolet, which resulted in the session being momentarily red-flagged to enable the Dutch driver to enter the pit lane safely.

Free Practice 2 is scheduled for 11h00 local time with Qualifying getting underway at 15h00.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:48.028
2	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:48.493
3	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:48.719
4	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:48.910
5	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:48.988
6	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:49.432
7	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:49.441
8	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:49.831
9	Dusan Borkovic	Proteam Racing	Honda	1:50.162
10	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:50.247
11	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:50.325
12	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:50.408
13	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:50.434
14	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:50.474
15	Rickard Rydell	Nika International	Honda	1:50.710
16	Stefano D’Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:50.792
17	James Thompson	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:51.408
18	Gregoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1:51.466