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Argentina, FP2: López leads Citroën 1-2-3 in red flagged practice

Argentine hero López at the double in WTCC Free Practice

By Franck Drui

7 March 2015 - 16:10

Another Free Practice session and another fastest time for world champion José María López, who continues to impress at Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo, venue of the 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship season-opener.

The Citroën C-Elysée WTCC driver set a fasest time of 1m46.589s over the 4.806-kilometre lap to head team-mates Ma Qing Ha (1m46.589s) and Yvan Muller (1m46.979s) with Tiago Monteiro the fastest Honda driver in fourth (1m47.031s). Rob Huff (1m47.442s) was a strong fifth in the all-new LADA Vesta despite a couple of off-track moments as he attempted to find the car’s limits. Mehdi Bennani was the top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy contender in sixth, one place ahead of category rival Stefano D’Aste (Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1).

It proved a dramatic Free Practice 2 for Hugo Valente, who blamed a brake issue for a sizeable crash aboard his Campos Racing Chevrolet, which sustained significant damage in the initial impact and when a fire ignited at the front of the car.

The WTCC drivers will be back on track at 15h00 local time for Qualifying.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:46.589
2	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:46.833
3	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:46.979
4	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:47.031
5	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:47.442
6	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:47.950
7	Stefano D’Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:47.956
8	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:47.976
9	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:48.110
10	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:48.128
11	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:48.170
12	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:48.209
13	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:48.632
14	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:48.648
15	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1:48.850
16	Rickard Rydell	Nika International	Honda	1:49.062
17	James Thompson	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:49.134
18	Dusan Borkovic	Proteam Racing	Honda	1:49.762