WTCC: Lopez tops first Ricard session

Double world champion Jose Maria Lopez was fastest in the first World Touring Car Championship testing session of the year at a moist Paul Ricard.

Lopez went fastest in the opening minutes of the half-hour session and was trailed by Citroen team-mate Yvan Muller, while Honda's Norbert Michelisz was third fastest.

The Citroen drivers were the first to take to the circuit in their C-Elysees, and were quickly on the pace as Muller went fastest with an opening effort of 1m45.414s. But Lopez went quicker on the next tour, finishing with an effort of 1m44.077s.

He remained unheaded from there, despite spinning in the rain and Muller improving to within half a second of his benchmark in the final five minutes of the session.

All three of Honda's drivers enjoyed a low-key session, but Michelisz jumped up to the third in the final minute with an effort of 1m44.725s. That displaced Mehdi Bennani, the best-placed of the Sebastien Loeb Racing satellite Citroen entries, who was fourth-fastest ahead of team-mate Tom Chilton.

ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel was sixth ahead of Nick Catsburg, who finished the session fastest of the Lada drivers, while Tiago Monteiro was eighth. Rob Huff was 12th in the third factory Honda.

Fredrik Ekblom and Thed Bjork were 14th and 15th respectively in their Volvo S60 Polestars on the manufacturer's return to the WTCC.

Neither of Zengo Motorsport's new recruits set a time, with Ferenc Ficza and Daniel Nagy staying in the pits for the entirety of the session.

Originally on Autosport.com