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Vila Real, Tests: López heads the history-makers in Portugal testing

López clocked a best lap of 2m01.455s

By Franck Drui

10 July 2015 - 14:26

Reigning WTCC champion José María López emerged fastest from testing for rounds 15 and 16 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship as history was made in Vila Real this morning.

The Portuguese city is hosting an FIA world championship motor race for the first time and it was López who beat his 17 WTCC rivals to the fastest time on the challenging 4.755-kilometre street track.

Driving a Citroën C-Elysée WTCC, López clocked a best lap of 2m01.455s to edge Honda Civic WTCC pilot and leading Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy contender Norbert Michelisz by 0.814s. Yvan Muller, López’s arch-rival for WTCC title glory, was third with Sébastien Loeb fourth and Mehdi Bennani fifth.

Gabriele Tarquini was sixth for Honda, Hugo Valente the top Chevrolet runner in seventh, home hero Tiago Monteiro eighth, Néstor Girolami ninth and Ma Qing Hua from China completing the top 10.

Tom Coronel set P11, Jaap van Lagen was the top LADA pilot in P12 with team-mates Rob Huff and Nicky Catsburg next up. Stefano D’Aste, Tom Chilton, John Filippi and Grégoire Demoustier filled the remaining four places.

The 30-minute test session gave the WTCC teams and drivers their first taste of the Vila Real circuit. The next track activity is Free Practice 1 at 09h10 local time on Saturday.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:01.455
2	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	2:02.269
3	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:02.819
4	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:02.920
5	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2:03.371
6	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2:03.639
7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2:03.899
8	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	2:04.205
9	Nestor Girolami	Nika International	Honda	2:04.851
10	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2:04.892
11	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:05.375
12	Jaap Van Lagen	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:05.931
13	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:06.202
14	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	2:06.423
15	Stefano D’Aste	Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:06.538
16	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	2:06.945
17	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	2:08.620
18	Grégoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	2:10.498