Citroën’s José María López continued to set the pace in first practice for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Losail, beating Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani by 0.410 seconds.
López was on top of the times for much of the half-hour session, ending up 0.410 seconds faster than the independent Citroën of Bennani.
Loeb himself was third quickest, ahead of the Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet of Stefano D’Aste, who was a surprise fourth fastest.
Gabriele Tarquini was the leading Honda driver in fifth, with the Italian being the only other driver within a second of ‘Pechito’ López.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was sixth fastest, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz.
Nicky Catsburg ended the session as the leading LADA driver in eighth, with his team-mates Nicolas Lapierre and Rob Huff ending up in tenth and 16th respectively.
Having failed to post a time in testing due to turbo problems, Honda’s Tiago Monteiro ended the session in 12th overall.
Local racer Nasser Al-Attiyah was the 17th fastest runner, just under two seconds off the pace and three tenths faster than Grégoire Demoustier, the slowest driver in the session.
The session, which was incident incident-free, was the first WTCC session to be run at night time, taking place under floodlights.
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 2:02.453 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 2:02.863 | 0.410 |
| 3 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 2:03.068 | 0.615 | |
| 4 | 26 | Y | Stefano D’ASTE |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 2:03.300 | 0.847 |
| 5 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 2:03.353 | 0.900 | |
| 6 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 2:03.492 | 1.039 |
| 7 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 10 | 2:03.514 | 1.061 |
| 8 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 12 | 2:03.538 | 1.085 | |
| 9 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 2:03.546 | 1.093 | |
| 10 | 47 | Nicolas LAPIERRE | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 12 | 2:03.569 | 1.116 | |
| 11 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 2:03.705 | 1.252 | |
| 12 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 2:03.719 | 1.266 | |
| 13 | 27 | Y | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 2:04.136 | 1.683 |
| 14 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 2:04.315 | 1.862 |
| 15 | 4 | Y | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 2:04.321 | 1.868 |
| 16 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 11 | 2:04.385 | 1.932 | |
| 17 | 95 | Y | Nasser Saleh AL-ATTIYAH |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 2:04.445 | 1.992 |
| 18 | 11 | Y | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 2:04.739 | 2.286 |
| 0:00.000 | 0.000 |