José María López: “This year is going to be a lot more difficult”

Citroën Racing’s José María López leaves the opening weekend of the WTCC as he started the last two seasons, leading the championship with a victory, but with just a four-point lead over Honda’s Tiago Monteiro and five over his Honda team-mate Rob Huff, the Argentinian is already expecting a tough third season.

López started the opening race from tenth on the grid and was able to push forward to score eight points with a sixth place finish, while converting pole position for the main race to a victory, although he came under threat from a fast charge from Monteiro in the final minutes, putting his victory down the lead he built when team-mate Yvan Muller was behind him at the start.

“I saw (Monteiro) was very quick off the line in the first race so I had to do a good start,” said López. “I took a little bit of a risk, but in the mirror I think maybe he didn’t get it right.”

Yvan Muller managed to get ahead of Monteiro at the start, and was effectively López’s tailgunner against the unladen Honda Civic, which was running at the minimum weight of 1,100kg against Citroën’s 1,180kg this weekend.

“Yvan was struggling a little bit with the pace, the heavier car is more difficult in the race. I wasn’t suffering too much at the start so I managed to pull away, but when Tiago passed Yvan he came at me like a train. He was a half a second quicker a lap, so I think the most important thing for me was the gap I built at the beginning.

“I’m very happy to win the main race and be first in the championship, there’s a long way to go, especially this year I think it’s much more difficult, but it’s good to start on the right foot.”