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Argentina, Tests: Loeb gets new WTCC season off to a flying start

Yvan Muller was second fastest

By Franck Drui

6 March 2015 - 14:57

Sébastien Loeb has got his 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign off to a flying start by topping pre-event testing for WTCC Race of Argentina this morning.

Loeb, in a Citroën C-Elysée WTCC, lapped the 4.806-kilometre Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in a time of 1m54.132s. However, with damp conditions greeting the drivers following overnight rain, Loeb was more than 10 seconds off world champion José María López’s qualifying record set by the Argentine last season.

Yvan Muller was second fastest, 0.276s down on team-mate and fellow Frenchman Loeb with López making it a Citroën top-three lockout, 0.699s off the pace. Tiago Monteiro was the fastest Honda Civic WTCC driver in fourth with Ma Qing Hua fifth and Mehdi Bennani sixth.

Hugo Valente topped the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 runners in seventh with James Thompson the fastest LADA Vesta driver in eighth on the car’s first public outing. Tom Chilton and Dušan Borković completed the top 10.

Friday morning’s 30-minute test session provided drivers with the first opportunity to take to the track in Argentina, which is hosting the WTCC season-opener for the first time. The next track activity is Free Practice 1 at 08h45 local time on Saturday.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:54.132
2	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:54.408
3	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:54.831
4	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:55.913
5	Ma Qing Hua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	1:55.978
6	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	1:56.058
7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:56.159
8	James Thompson	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:56.200
9	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:56.321
10	Dusan Borkovic	Proteam Racing	Honda	1:56.435
11	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	1:56.438
12	Stefano D’Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:56.734
13	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	1:56.934
14	Robert Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	1:56.964
15	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	1:57.107
16	Rickard Rydell	Nika International	Honda	1:57.352
17	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	1:57.617
18	Gregoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	2:01.487