Losail, FP2: López nets Qatar WTCC hat-trick

José María López has completed his personal FIA WTCC DHL Race of Qatar hat-trick by going quickest for the third session in succession at the Losail International Circuit tonight.

The Citroën-driving Argentine lapped the 5.380-kilometre track in 2m01.859s to top the timesheets in Free Practice 2 as nine-tenths of a second covered the fastest 11 drivers in the spectacular floodlit conditions.

“The team did a good job with the car and the set-up and I was happy,” said López. “I like the track but there is not so much grip with a kind of small layer of sand. We should see some good racing tomorrow but I’m not thinking too much about this performance or the possibility of 10 wins. I just try to do my best.”

While López was quickest again, there were also strong performances from Chevrolet privateers Hugo Valente and Grégoire Demoustier who were second and third respectively. López’s team-mate Sébastien Loeb was fourth quickest ahead of John Filippi, Tom Chilton, Ma Qing Hua, Mehdi Bennani and Stefano D’Aste.

Nicky Catsburg was the leading LADA driver in P10 with Yvan Muller and Tom Coronel next up. Local hero Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah was P17, 1.741s slower than López on his WTCC debut.

Up next for the WTCC stars is Qualifying from 15h00 on Friday. The WTCC’s maiden night races take place over 12 laps at 21h30 and 22h40 respectively.