Loeb leads sparse field in WTCC test

Sebastien Loeb topped the times for Citroen during official World Touring Car Championship testing at Barcelona.

Driving his newly liveried C-Elysee, Loeb set what would stand as the quickest time of the day during the morning session, lapping in 1m49.972s.

Mehdi Bennani, who was fastest in the afternoon, did not improve on his morning time and ended the day 0.877 seconds adrift in his C-Elysee entered by Loeb's eponymous team.

Gabriele Tarquini had been fourth fastest for Honda's works team in the morning but improved in the afternoon to be third fastest overall with a 1m51.063s, ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro.

Privateer Hugo Valente split the two works Civics in his Campos Chevrolet with a faster run this afternoon after suffering teething problems with the new car in the morning.

The two Citroens and Hondas were the only works cars present, with the remaining four cars that took to the track being privateers.

Stefano D'Aste's Munnich Chevrolet Cruze did not appear on the official timing, which is being operated by a new provider this year, but his team timed his best lap at 1m51.788s.

Many teams had either tested elsewhere in recent weeks, or had only just taken delivery of their 2015 machinery and planned shakedown runs in Italy early next week.

Lada is testing its new ORECA-developed Vesta in private at Magny-Cours.

Next Thursday is the deadline for teams' equipment to be at Frankfurt for air freighting to the first round of the season in Argentina on March 4-6.

COMBINED TEST RESULTS:

2015 WTCC ENTRIES SO FAR:

Citroen
Works: Jose Maria Lopez, Yvan Muller, Sebastien Loeb, Ma Qing Hua
Sebastien Loeb Racing: Mehdi Bennani

Honda
Works: Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro
Honda Sweden: Rickard Rydell
Proteam: Dusan Borkovic
Zengo: Norbert Michelisz

Lada
Works: Rob Huff, James Thompson, Mikhail Kozlovskiy

Chevrolet
ROAL: Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel
Munnich: Stefano D'Aste, tba
Campos: Hugo Valente, John Filippi
Craft-Bamboo: Gregoire Demoustier

Originally on Autosport.com