Photo: Citroen Racing

José María López: “It’s been the best championship of my career”

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Citroën’s José María López leaves the final race of the season having won ten from 23 races, and with a Guia Race Macau Grand Prix victory trophy after leading all the way through race one, and has declared the 2014 WTCC season his best ever championship.

The 31-year-old took pole position and led the way in race one, romping to his 11th career victory and tenth of the 2014 WTCC season in the Citroën C-Elysée at Macau, and with fifth in race two from tenth on the grid, takes the all-time WTCC points record with a tally of 462, 126 points clear of his nearest rival, Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller.

“When I started the season I never expected this, and winning here in Macau definitely was something I didn’t expect,” said López. “Especially when you have an experienced team-mate like Yvan, who started here for the first time in ’91. He’s won many times so I knew it was going to be very tough to beat him, but with a lot of work with the team, and with the help of everybody I managed to feel good from the start of the weekend. It was strange as even though I won the championship in Suzuka, I still felt as nervous as always, as I really wanted to do well. If there is a race you want to win and say I have the Trophy, it would be Macau. I don’t have seven like Rob (Huff), but I have one.”

On whether the race was easy, after pulling away a five second gap to Zengõ Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz, the Argentinian added:

“No, it’s never easy. First I had Seb (Loeb alongside), so I had to do a good start, so I put a lot of effort into that, so after the start I could say it was easier, but not easy. Sometimes when you relax, that’s when you do a mistake. My pace was fantastic so I’m very happy with that.”

Looking ahead to next season, where the champion will now return to defend his title with the No.1 on the car against the same team-mates Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb, López remarked:

“I think you start from zero every year, and it’s going to be very difficult for me to improve on this year. It’s been the best championship of my career, I’ve managed to be consistent and not made many mistakes this season.”