Yvan Muller topped the times in the first World Touring Car Championship test session of the year in Morocco, as Citroën Racing enjoyed a perfect 1-2-3 result.
Citroën dominated the opening practice session of the season, with all three C-Elysée WTCC cars in the top three positions. Argentine José María López was second fastest, within half a second of Muller, whilst WTCC newcomer Sébastien Loeb was third, a further two tenths back.
Citroën Racing Team Principal Yves Matton says that it is too early to read into the testing times, due to uncertainty as to what the other teams were doing so early on in the season.
“It was a good result, but it’s only the first step,” admitted Matton. “It’s difficult to know what the other teams were doing in the session. For sure we put all we had because we wanted to know where we are. And it was important for the whole team to have a good feeling and be confident for the rest of the weekend.”
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was the closest non-Citroën driver in the RML-built Chevrolet, a significant 1.957 seconds off the pace in fourth – although it is noted that all teams were not running at their full pace and no lap records were broken, despite the increased performance of the new cars.
Tiago Monteiro was the top Honda driver in fifth, ahead of a solid performance by Rob Huff in his new LADA, 2.285 seconds off the top time.
Tom Coronel was seventh and the final driver within three seconds of the pace in his ROAL Motorsport RML Cruze.
Local driver Mehdi Bennani was a strong eighth overall and the second fastest Honda driver, whilst Tom Chilton and Gabriele Tarquini completed the top ten for ROAL Motorsport and Honda respectively.
Russian Mikhail Kozlovskiy was the slowest driver in the TC1 class, 7.2 seconds off the pace in 17th on his first proper run in his new Granta.
The quickest driver in TC2T was WTCC veteran Franz Engstler who was 16th fastest, ahead of rookie Petr Fulín in 18th.
First practice takes place at 09:00 BST on Saturday (10:00 CEST), with second practice following at 11:15 BST (12:15 CEST) and qualifying at 14:00 BST (15:00 CEST).
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 10 | 1:44.513 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 1:44.945 | 0.432 |
| 3 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 1:45.161 | 0.648 |
| 4 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 1:46.470 | 1.957 |
| 5 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:46.503 | 1.990 |
| 6 | 12 | TC1 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport Lukoil | LADA Granta 1.6T | 10 | 1:46.798 | 2.285 |
| 7 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 13 | 1:46.927 | 2.414 |
| 8 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:47.583 | 3.070 |
| 9 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 1:47.617 | 3.104 |
| 10 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 1:47.629 | 3.116 |