Jose María López and Sébastien Loeb set the best lap times in today’s test session at Le Castellet’s Circuit Paul Ricard.
However, unlike what happened one week ago at Marrakech, there was not a trio of Citroën cars on top of the time sheet, because Yvan Muller was only placed in fifth behind Norbert Michelisz’ s Honda and Hugo Valente’s Chevrolet.
López was the first one to post a provisional fastest lap of 1:32.158, that Loeb improved to 1:31.365; eventually López jump on top again with his last lap of 1:31.227.
Most of the other drivers improved they times in the second half of the session, Michelisz climbed to a provisional second place (1:32.135), followed by Valente in third (1:32.158) until López dropped them by one place.
Gianni Morbidelli posted the sixth fastest lap, with Tiago Monteiro, Tom Chilton, Dušan Borković and Gabriele Tarquini rounding off the top ten.
The three LADA cars of Rob Huff, James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy closed the group of the TC1 cars, while Franz Engstler topped the TC2T class.
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | José Maria LOPEZ | Citroen C-Elysee WTCC | 1:31.227 |
| 2 | Sébastien LOEB | Citroen C-Elysee WTCC | 1:31.365 |
| 3 | Norbert MICHELISZ | Honda Civic WTCC | 1:32.135 |
| 4 | Hugo VALENTE | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1:32.158 |
| 5 | Yvan MULLER | Citroen C-Elysee WTCC | 1:32.383 |
| 6 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1:32.704 |
| 7 | Tiago MONTEIRO | Honda Civic WTCC | 1:32.725 |
| 8 | Tom CHILTON | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1:32.954 |
| 9 | Dusan BORKOVIC | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1:32.957 |
| 10 | Gabriele TARQUINI | Honda Civic WTCC | 1:33.030 |
| 11 | Mehdi BENNANI | Honda Civic WTCC | 1:33.051 |
| 12 | René MUNNICH | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1:33.762 |
| 13 | Rob HUFF | LADA Granta 1.6T | 1:34.040 |
| 14 | James THOMPSON | LADA Granta 1.6T | 1:34.444 |
| 15 | Mikhail KOZLOVSKIY | LADA Granta 1.6T | 1:35.395 |
| 16 | Franz ENGSTLER | BMW E90 320 TC | 1:36.895 |
| 17 | Pasquale DI SABATINO | BMW E90 320 TC | 1:38.212 |
| 18 | John FILIPPI | SEAT Leon WTCC | 1:39.420 |