José María López thrilled with outstanding debut in the WTCC

30-year-old José María López made a debut above all expectations in his home race in Argentina, winning the second race with the Wiechers-Sport BMW securing the team’s third ever victory and taking only the second win for a BMW car in the 2013 season.

The Argentinian driver who first got to drive the Super 2000 specification BMW 320 TC in a 30 minute test on Friday led from lights to flag in race two after securing pole position in the reversed grid race in qualifying on Saturday.

López led the way in the early stages building a two second buffer to Tiago Monteiro’s Castrol Honda Civic, before the Portuguese driver was knocked off the track by Yvan Muller’s RML Chevrolet, which saw the Frenchman handed a penalty which took the pressure off ‘Pechito’ Lopez, who went on to take a win on the Championship’s first visit to Argentina in front of his home crowd.

“When I knew I was starting in P1 (for race two) I was a little nervous and I knew it was going to be difficult, which gave me the feeling to come back and feel like I had to do my best,” said López.

“When I first did a lap I knew I had a good car for fighting with and maybe an opportunity to win wasn’t too (impossible), then in the first race and I thought starting P9, maybe I can keep that or get P8 and do a good race and not break the car and lead the second race.

“I did a good start, the best thing for the BMW is the start, and I pulled a gap in the first few laps with the new tyres, and then I saw Monteiro was coming quick and I thought I’m in trouble, then I saw Muller coming and then I thought now I’m in big trouble, and then I couldn’t see Muller any more and I thought now it was possible.

“I had to wait for the end, and at that moment you start hearing every noise and vibration and thinking something is wrong, but finally the win came, and I’m so happy, I didn’t expect this, I’ve been racing with great drivers…and winning the race of course is a brilliant result.”

Gabriele Tarquini, who finished second for Honda and raced with López previously in the TC 2000 Buenos Aires 200km race, also in a Honda, congratulated the Argentinian on his extraordinary achievement after the race.

“I’m very happy that Pechito had this great race. Our Championship is not easy, (and yes) he knows the track but after a few laps everybody knew the track and he had a great race. He’s not using the best car, Wiechers-Sport is a fantastic team but it’s not easy to win with a BMW here and he took this chance and had a fantastic race.”