Suzuka, Tests: López in a league of his own

The Argentine racer, who is expected to be crowned Drivers’ champion on Sunday, topped the time sheet for most of the session. He set a provisional fastest time of 2:08.829 on his first lap out of the pits and failed to improve it by one thousandth, stopping the clock at 2:08.830 on his second lap.

The session was disrupted by the red flag at half way, for cleaning the track after Henry Kwong spun off at T12 and rejoined scattering gravels on the tarmac.

When action resumed, Sébastien Loeb was clocked at 2:07.778, obliterating López’s time. However the latter answered by smashing the 2:07. mark in the final moments of the session. His 2:06.987 placed him eighth tenths ahead of the former World Rally champion.

Yvan Muller completed a Citroën trio (2:08.327) and was followed by the first Honda car of Tiago Monteiro (2:08.402) and Hugo Valente’s Chevrolet Cruze (2:09.041).

Tom Chilton, Gabriele Tarquini and Dušan Borković filled the positions between sixth and eighth, while the LADA cars of Rob Huff and James Thompson rounded off the top-ten. Mehdi Bennani – winner of the second race in Shanghai – was sidelined by a turbocharger problem.

In the TC2T class, Franz Engstler (2:17.105) posted the fastest lap ahead of John Filippi (2:17.699).

The WTCC field will run again tomorrow in two free practices at 9.10 and 11.20, before the qualifying session at 15.25.