Qatar WTCC: Lopez starts final weekend on top in FP1

It was Volvo’s Robert Dahlgren who set the early benchmark, topping the time sheets with a time of 2m03.539s, going fastest ahead of teammate Thed Bjork by just over a tenth of a second.

Lopez was the closest threat to the Volvo pair in third after one lap in his factory Citroen C-Elysee, before the privateer Citroen of Mehdi Bennani took his place on his second run, with Valente setting the fourth fastest time in his Lada.

The session was then red-flagged with less than 10 minutes to run after Daniel Nagy, in the Zengo Honda Civic, slid wide at the exit of Turn 7 and buried his car in the gravel trap.

The session was held under the red flag for 15 minutes to clear the track. When the session resumed, Valente quickly jumped to the top of the table with a time of 2m02.919s.

He was closely followed by the Volvo of Bjork, just over a tenth of a second behind, with both drivers’ cars not carrying any compensation weight this weekend.

Valente’s time kept him on top for less than a minute, before triple champion Lopez went fastest of all with a time over seven tenths of a second faster.

Lopez thus ended the session fastest ahead of Valente and Bjork, though Valente was able to find another tenth in the dying moments of practice.

Dahlgren was fourth fastest, while Rob Huff was the quickest of the Honda drivers in fifth, just over a second from Lopez’s time.

Lada drivers Nicky Catsburg and Gabriele Tarquini, Citroen’s Yvan Muller, the Honda of Tiago Monteiro and the privateer Citroen of Bennani completed the top 10.

FP1 results:

Pos	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen	8	2'02.182
2	Hugo Valente	LADA	12	2'02.803	0.621
3	Thed Björk	Volvo	7	2'03.049	0.867
4	Robert Dahlgren	Volvo	11	2'03.181	0.999
5	Rob Huff	Honda	10	2'03.200	1.018
6	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA	11	2'03.319	1.137
7	Nicky Catsburg	LADA	13	2'03.386	1.204
8	Yvan Muller	Citroen	11	2'03.617	1.435
9	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	10	2'03.687	1.505
10	Mehdi Bennani	Citroen	11	2'03.710	1.528
11	Norbert Michelisz	Honda	11	2'03.719	1.537
12	Tom Chilton	Citroen	10	2'03.832	1.650
13	John Filippi	Chevrolet	11	2'03.877	1.695
14	Grégoire Demoustier	Citroen	11	2'04.376	2.194
15	Ferenc Ficza	Honda	11	2'04.511	2.329
16	James Thompson	Chevrolet	12	2'05.028	2.846
17	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet	8	2'05.118	2.936
18	Daniel Nagy	Honda	10	2'05.276	3.094