Lopez continues Spa domination

Jose Maria Lopez maintained his Friday margin of superiority over his Citroen World Touring Car Championship teammates in Spa-Francorchamps practice on Saturday.

The series leader recorded the fastest time of the day so far during practice one, with a 1m24.350s on his second flying lap.

Lopez ended the session 1.198 seconds up on title rival Yvan Muller, while just 0.05s covered Muller, Ma Qing Hua and World Rally Championship legend Sebastien Loeb in the remaining three Citroens.

Ma's final effort had fleetingly moved him up to second, but the time was disallowed for breach of track limits at Blanchimont.

Lada team-mates James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy, as well as Yokohama Trophy leader Franz Engstler, also had laptimes annulled by race officials. Indeed, cars cutting Eau Rouge and running with all four wheels off the road on corner exits was a theme of both practice sessions.

Campos Chevrolet driver Hugo Valente continued his strong early-weekend form of 2014 by finishing top non-C-Elysee runner in fifth and then secured second behind Lopez in practice two with a lap completed just after the chequered flag.

Lopez was two tenths adrift of his morning effort in the afternoon session but was again the only driver to dip below the 2m25s mark. He was seven tenths clear of Valente, with Muller a further 0.128s behind.

Ma recovered from being shown a black and white warning flag for track limit infringements to make it three Citroens in the top four, but Loeb had a relatively low-key session prior to qualifying and ended the afternoon ninth.

Leading Honda representative Mehdi Bennani was seven tenths adrift of Valente in practice one's 'best of the rest' battle. Gabriele Tarquini took fifth later on, but was another to receive a warning flag for breach of track limits.

The former WTCC champion was stripped of one competitive time, but produced a lap that secured fifth in the final five minutes of action.

Dusan Borkovic completed the free practice two top six. The Serbian bounced back from a spin in the opening practice session, when he lost the rear of his Campos Cruze at the final part of Les Combes.

Rob Huff showed no ill effects from frequent commuting between Spa and the Nurburgring, where he is competing in this weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours, to secure in-house Lada honours in 14th in the morning.