Citroën’s José María López set the pace in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship at the Salzburgring, posting a lap time of 1:23.101 around the Austrian circuit.
Argentine López rose to the top of the times after just over 20 minutes, improving from second fastest to pip Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente to the top time by just 0.027 seconds. Of note, López’s time was ‘only’ 2.6 seconds faster than the pole position time from 2013 (which was subsequently disallowed).
The session was ended prematurely when both ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini stopped out on circuit with less than five minutes remaining, the latter with a steering pump problem. Coronel suffered the first puncture of the weekend in his Chevrolet. They ended the session in 10th and 11th respectively.
Third fastest was Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, who was briefly top of the times with 10 minutes remaining. Citroën’s Yvan Muller was fourth, with the Frenchman posting his best time within the first few minutes of the 30-minute session.
Tiago Monteiro was fifth fastest for the works JAS Honda outfit, ahead of the third Citroën of Sébastien Loeb in sixth.
Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli was seventh, ahead of the Zengo Motorsport Honda of Norbert Michelisz and the top ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet of Tom Chilton in ninth.
In total 11 drivers were covered by less than a second, with Tarquini the final driver inside that mark.
Rob Huff ended the session as the top LADA driver, 1.901 seconds off the pace, ahead of team-mates James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
Franz Engstler ended the session as the top TC2 driver down in 17th position ahead of Pasquale di Sabatino and John Filippi.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 15 | 1:23.101 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:23.128 | 0.027 |
| 3 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 1:23.250 | 0.149 |
| 4 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 1:23.281 | 0.180 |
| 5 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 1:23.476 | 0.375 |
| 6 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 1:23.513 | 0.412 |
| 7 | 10 | TC1 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 13 | 1:23.672 | 0.571 |
| 8 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 1:23.784 | 0.683 |
| 9 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 1:23.811 | 0.710 |
| 10 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 1:23.831 | 0.730 |