Photo: Citroen Racing

José María López leads wet test session in Paul Ricard

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Reigning champion José María López was fastest of all in the 30-minute test session on Friday at the Circuit Paul Ricard, leading Citroën Racing team-mate Yvan Muller by just under half a second, with Norbert Michelisz, now in a factory-run Honda Civic, their closest threat.

The session started wet and stayed that way throughout with consistent light rain hitting the circuit in the south of France.

The Citroëns were quick to take the lead in the session, with Muller and López setting times in the 1:44s right at the start.

The times behind the two works Citroëns swapped hands throughout the session, with Norbert Michelisz putting in a last-minute flyer to depose the Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Citroën of Mehdi Bennani, who would be the fastest classified of the independent drivers.

Bennani was just ahead of his new team-mate Tom Chilton, while Tom Coronel was the fastest of the Chevrolet RML drivers in sixth, just over a second off of López’s pace.

The new Polestar Volvos struggled in the session, with Fredrik Ekblom the fastest in 14th, while the best placed Lada was that of Nicky Catsburg in seventh.

Only 16 cars took part in the session, with the two Zengo Hondas of Daniel Nagy and Ferenc Ficza sitting out the test.

Next is Free Practice 1 on Saturday at 8:45 CET.