Photo: Citroën Racing

Fastest on Friday Sébastien Loeb says conditions suited his style

Citroën Total WTCC driver Sébastien Loeb toped the time sheets for the first test session of the 2015 WTCC season at Termas de Río Hondo, but believes the damp conditions perhaps just favoured him more than it did his competitors.

Loeb was almost three-tenths of a second quicker than team-mate Yvan Muller, with reigning champion José María López the best part of a second off the pace, with all drivers in the upgrade C-Elysée WTCCs this season, but the rally star doesn’t believe too much should be read into his pace yet.

“It’s better to be fastest than to be tenth, as it means that I was competitive in the morning and that I was fast, so for sure that’s good news,” said Loeb. “But on the other side, it was a tricky morning with a lot of damp and humidity, with the grip level changing, and that’s a situation where I’m usually fast – so I’ll hope that it continues like this for the rest of the weekend and I’ll continue to be fast like in the morning, but at the moment for me it doesn’t mean anything,” he quipped.

Warmer conditions are expected to hit the circuit during the weekend, with the temperature set to get towards the mid-30s on Sunday. When asked whether he believed this would cause tyre wear issues, Loeb responded:

“I think (it’s a problem) more for the drivers than for the tyres, because it’s already really hot in the car. For the tyres, I think here it’s not a track that will destroy the tyres, though we might get some understeer from overheating the tyre.”