Hugo Valente happy as best of the non-Citroëns in testing

21-year-old Hugo Valente was happy with his pace as the best non-Citroën driver in the first 30 minute test session at this weekend’s WTCC Race of Morocco, although the new Campos Racing-run Chevrolet Cruze was almost two-seconds off the pace of reigning champion Yvan Muller’s Citroën C-Elysée.

Valente improved late in the session along with Honda’s Tiago Monteiro to bump Lada’s Rob Huff down the order. The three different manufacturers were split by just three-tenths of a second, but were nowhere near the pace of the all-new Citroëns on their debut.

“It’s only free practice zero so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow as that’s more important, but it’s a good way to start the weekend, it’s a good way to start the season,” said Valente to TouringCarTimes.

“The Citroën is on another planet right now as we can see, I’m not sure how much more we can gain, but for sure not two seconds; so we’ll try to be the first Chevrolet and see how it goes against the Honda and the Lada and hopefully we can get into Q2 or Q3. There’s only two spaces in Q3 as there’s three places already reserved for the Citroën,” he remarked.