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 |