Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb set the pace in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) season opener in Argentina, ahead of team-mates Yvan Muller and José María López.
Honda’s Tiago Monteiro posted the fourth fastest time and was the top non-Citroën driver, despite posting a time more than a second and a half of the pace and being more than a second slower than third-placed López.
The fourth work’s Citroën of Ma Qing Hua was fifth, ahead of Mehdi Bennani, piloting the only independent Citroën in the field for Sébastien Loeb Racing in sixth.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was seventh and the top Chevrolet driver, just over two seconds off Loeb’s time.
Completing the top ten were James Thompson, driving the brand new LADA Vesta, ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton and Proteam Racing’s Dušan Borković.
Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz just missed out on the top ten, posting a lap 2.306 seconds off the pace. Two other Honda drivers, works pilot Gabriele Tarquini and the returning Rickard Rydell, ended the session in 15th and 16th positions respectively.
WTCC rookie Grégoire Demoustier posted the slowest time in 18th on his début and Craft-Bamboo Racing’s return to the series, some 7.355 seconds off the pace.
The results of the session were delayed by more than an hour after the WTCC’s new timing partner ITS Chrono failed to provide a working timing feed.
First practice takes place at 08:45 (ART, 11:45 GMT) on Saturday 7th March.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 1:54.132 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 1:54.408 | 0.276 | |
| 3 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 1:54.831 | 0.699 | |
| 4 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 10 | 1:55.913 | 1.781 | |
| 5 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 1:55.978 | 1.846 | |
| 6 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 1:56.058 | 1.926 |
| 7 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 1:56.159 | 2.027 |
| 8 | 15 | James THOMPSON |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 11 | 1:56.200 | 2.068 | |
| 9 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 1:56.321 | 2.189 |
| 10 | 98 | Y | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 10 | 1:56.435 | 2.303 |