López able to push harder at more ‘conventional’ Paul Ricard

Citroën Total WTCC’s José María ‘Pechito’ López, says he’s able to push harder from the start at the Paul Ricard circuit after topping the time sheets in the 30 minute Friday test session, as opposed to the tricky Marrakech street circuit event last weekend.

The current championship leader was just over a tenth of a second clear of team-mate Sébastien Loeb in the test, leading a Citroën 1-2 just ahead of the Honda of Norbert Michelisz and the Chevrolet of Hugo Valente, with the rest of the field much closer to the French manufacturer than they were a week ago in Morocco.

López admits he’s more comfortable to push hard from the outset at the more ordinary circuit where Citroën have already tested, than the Moulay El Hassan circuit of Marrakech.

“In Marrakech, I was more careful as it was a street circuit. I knew here from the beginning I would be able to push a bit harder, I know the circuit more as does everyone, I think this is the circuit Seb knows the most as well,” said López to TouringCarTimes.

Citroën struggled with braking issues last week in Marrakech, forcing the team to back off the fight between the team-mates early on to conserve the cars, but those issues are unlikely to occur at Paul Ricard, where the conditions are much cooler and even rain forecast later on during the weekend.

“I think we’re not going to have those (brake issues) in Paul Ricard as the temperature is about 10-15 degrees lower, so there’s no problem with overheating, so I think the main issue will be the tyre consumption, as this circuit is much more abrasive than Marrakech,” he said.

“I (also) think we can deal with the rain if we see it coming. The good thing is when we did the test a few months ago here, it rained, so we’ve done quite a lot of laps in the rain, and Honda has as well as they were here with us.”

In the test session, Honda and Chevrolet appear much closer at the start of the weekend with both Michelisz and Valente within a second of the leading Citroën driver, which López admits is not a surprise.

“I knew it was going to be like that,” he said. “This is more of a conventional track. We knew here that the competition would be closer, especially Honda which tested with us. We’ve done a lot of testing, so we know we’re nearer the limit of our car than the others are with theirs, so through the races the others are going to close the gap, and we have to keep developing the car and try to get better.”