Termas de Río Hondo, FP1: Lopez tops times once again

Another show of strength

By Franck Drui

2 August 2014 - 15:15
Termas de Río Hondo, FP1: Lopez (...)

Local hero José María López offered another show of strength during this morning’s first practice session at Termas de Río Hondo.

Local hero José María López offered another show of strength during this morning’s first practice session at Termas de Río Hondo.

The Argentine driver was consistently the fastest and eventually topped the time sheet with a lap of 1:43.889, leaving his Citroën team-mate Sébastien Loeb (1:44.149) more than two tenths behind.

Loeb commented: “We tried to perform the scheduled working plan, trying different set-up solutions, but it’s difficult to get a clear idea because the track is still very green and conditions keep changing, making it difficult to find reliable parameters. Still, the car feels good.”

Mehdi Bennani created a surprise in the Proteam Honda Civic car, posting the third fastest lap (1:44.288), four tenths off the leader’s pace. The Moroccan beat Yvan Muller by one hundredth of a second, demoting him to fourth.

“It’s a good start. It seems the circuit suits well the Honda cars. I think the chassis characteristics of the Civic make the car quite agile on this track, and that despite the long straight, we are not too penalized in top speed. Third-fastest is a good result, especially on used tires and not having the latest spec updates that the works Honda cars have, so I am happy,” said Bennani.

The Honda Castrol duo of Gabriele Tarquini (1:44.528) and Tiago Monteiro (1:44.719) ranked fifth and seventh respectively, as they were split by the Zengö Motorsport Civic of Norbert Michelisz (1:44.675).

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was the fastest of the Chevrolet RML drivers in eighth position (1:45.259), ahead of Hugo Valente (1:45.302) and the first LADA Granta of Rob Huff (1:45.541).

Franz Engstler set the fastest lap in the TC2T class (1:50.133), one-and-a-half second faster than John Filippi. Engstler’s team-mate Camilo Echevarría was not able to post any significant lap time due to a turbocharger failure.

Pos. Driver Car Time
1 José Maria LOPEZ Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:43.889
2 Sébastien LOEB Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:44.149
3 Mehdi BENNANI Honda Civic WTCC 1:44.288
4 Yvan MULLER Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:44.298
5 Gabriele TARQUINI Honda Civic WTCC 1:44.528
6 Norbert MICHELISZ Honda Civic WTCC 1:44.675
7 Tiago MONTEIRO Honda Civic WTCC 1:44.719
8 Tom CHILTON Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.259
9 Hugo VALENTE Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.302
10 Rob HUFF LADA Granta 1.6T 1:45.541
11 Dusan BORKOVIC Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.541
12 Gianni MORBIDELLI Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.747
13 James THOMPSON LADA Granta 1.6T 1:46.162
14 Tom CORONEL Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:46.197
15 René MUNNICH Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:46.455
16 Mikhail KOZLOVSKIY LADA Granta 1.6T 1:46.617
17 Franz ENGSTLER BMW E90 320 TC 1:50.133
18 John FILIPPI Seat Leon WTCC 1:51.655
19 Camilo ECHEVARRIA BMW E90 320 TC -:—.---

WTCR

Search

Motorsport news

Pics

Videos