José María López thanks team-mate Yvan Muller for help in overtaking move

José María López won at home at Termas de Río Hondo. The Citroën driver lost the lead of the main race at the start but, with a little help from team-mate Yvan Muller, he managed to take the lead back from Honda’s Norbert Michelisz and went on to take his fifth success on home soil in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

“Of course I knew I had a good chance in the second race but already Norbert did a better start than me, which I knew would be possible here,” admitted the double world champion. He moved very well and did a fantastic defensive manoeuvre in Turn 2. I have to say thank you to the team and especially to Yvan who allowed me to have a go at Michelisz without disturbing me.”

López believes that without Muller’s move he would have had a hard time passing the Hungarian: “Without that it would have been very difficult. When we went side-to-side for Turn 9 something happened because he defended from Yvan and let the inside clear for me.”

After the engine issue suffered yesterday and the subsequent penalty, the Argentinian did not expect to extend his lead after his home race: “It’s very important to win here in my country. I didn’t expect to be able to pull out points with the engine problem we had. I’m a very lucky guy and thank you to everyone who has been here pushing for me.”

López’s advantage is now up to 117 points from Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, with Yvan Muller in third a further seven points behind. Lada’s Nicky Catsburg loses third place after scoring no points this weekend.