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Thailand, FP1: López leads the way

He was suffering from an inner ear problem

By Franck Drui

31 October 2015 - 09:41

José María López emerged quickest from Free Practice 1 for the inaugural WTCC Race of Thailand.

Top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy contender Mehdi Bennani was second fastest, 0.299s slower, with Sébastien Loeb completing a Citroën top-three in third. Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini were fourth and fourth for Honda respectively with Nicky Catsburg the fastest of the LADA drivers in sixth.

López revealed earlier that he was suffering from an inner ear problem although it didn’t slow the world champion elect.

Tiago Monteiro, Hugo Valente, Ma Qing Hua and Rob Huff completed the top 10 in Free Practice 1, which was stopped two minutes ahead of schedule after Nicolas Lapierre slid into the gravel at Turn 3, where his LADA ended up in the tyre barrier.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:40.074
2	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:40.373
3	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:40.623
4	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:40.636
5	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:40.886
6	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:40.986
7	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:41.105
8	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:41.223
9	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:41.513
10	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:41.529
11	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:41.634
12	Stefano D’Aste	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:41.942
13	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:41.967
14	Nicolas Lapierre	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:42.057
15	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:42.151
16	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	1:42.354
17	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:42.355
18	Tin Sritrai	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:42.503