José María López’s impressive start to his FIA World Touring Car Championship title defence continued when he went fastest in testing for Eurodatacar WTCC Race of Morocco.
However, Citroën Racing’s championship leader and Argentine hero isn’t getting carried away with his performance after he set his session-topping time on his final flying lap at the wheel of his C-Elysée WTCC.
“It’s just testing, there’s still a long way to go,” said López. “I always try every time I am in the car, we had a good feeling and a good set-up.”
López was 0.581s faster than team-mate Yvan Muller with local hero Mehdi Bennani third quickest and the top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy contender. Hugo Valente impressed with the fourth best time in his Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 with Marrakech rookie Ma Qing Hua fifth for Citroën, despite a spin, and Tiago Monteiro the leading Honda Civic WTCC driver in sixth. Rob Huff was the fastest of the factory LADA drivers in 12th.
Testing took place in sunny and dry conditions with the ambient temperature reaching 26 degrees centigrade. The WTCC stars will be back on track on Saturday morning for Free Practice 1 at 08h15 local time.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:44.834 |
| 2 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:45.415 |
| 3 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | 1:45.461 |
| 4 | Hugo Valente | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1:45.842 |
| 5 | Ma Qing Hua | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:45.867 |
| 6 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:45.895 |
| 7 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:46.279 |
| 8 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:46.471 |
| 9 | Gabriele Tarquini | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:46.485 |
| 10 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo Motorsport | Honda | 1:46.916 |
| 11 | Tom Chilton | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:46.966 |
| 12 | Robert Huff | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:47.055 |
| 13 | Dusan Borkovic | Proteam Racing | Honda | 1:47.123 |
| 14 | Stefano D’Aste | Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:47.346 |
| 15 | Mikhail Kozlvskiy | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:49.173 |
| 16 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1:49.745 |
| 17 | James Thompson | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:49.848 |
| 18 | Grégoire Demoustier | Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet | 1:50.607 |