Argentina, Race 1: López shines in the sun for home WTCC success

José María López has made the best possible start to the new FIA World Touring Car Championship season by winning the opening race in Argentina.

The home hero overcame an early challenge from Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller to claim a standout victory in ambient temperatures of 34 degrees centigrade.

Roared by an estimated 40,000 fans, López beat Muller and fellow Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb with Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini fourth and fifth respectively for Honda.

Norbert Michelisz charged through from the back of the grid to top the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy category with Ma Qing Hua next up after the Chinese driver’s Citroën was slow away. Tom Chilton, Stefano D’Aste and Rickard Rydell completed the top 10 with Dušan Borković 11th, Grégoire Demoustier 12th and Mehdi Bennani 13th after the Moroccan was handed a drive-through penalty following a clash with LADA driver Rob Huff. Tom Coronel completed the finishers after pitting with a mechanical glitch.

James Thompson retired with a damaged right-rear wheel at the end of opening lap. John Filippi was also out after the first tour with damage to his front-left wheel, while team-mate Hugo Valente crashed out of 14th on lap five and inflicted substantial damage to the front of his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 for the second day in a row. Valente, who was nursing a sore thumb afterwards, again blamed the incident on a brake issue.

The second 13-lap race is due to start at 16h30 local time.