WTCC-C1: Pechito Lopez easy winner in Argentina

Pechito is a star in Argentina and the fans were able to celebrate the victory of the Albiceleste idol during the first race contested on the Termas de Rio Hondo track. A real football stadium atmosphere on arrival after the success of the Citroën pilot. Author of a perfect start, Jose Maria Lopez subsequently easily dominated a first round which allowed him to once again widen the gap at the top of the championship over Yvan Muller, who “only” ranked 3rd.

Indeed, the Alsatian, reigning world champion, missed his takeoff when the lights went out, passing by the Honda Civics of the Hungarian Norbert Michelisz and the Portuguese Tiago Monteiro, attacking at the first corner, and not having did not hesitate to contact the C-Elysée. If Muller was quickly able to take 3rd place from Monteiro and his official Civic, the Frenchman was not able to get back on Michelisz's private Civic which took a nice second place. Muller, 3rd, gives up 10 points to José María López in the championship and is now at 50 points before the second race which will be contested later in the evening.

Note the very good result of Lada, with the 7th place of Rob Huff and the 10th of James Thompson, who passed Tom Coronel (Chevrolet) in the last moments. Huff will start in pole position for the second round, with Hugo Valente (Chevrolet) on his right, the Frenchman who experienced problems in this C1, after contact with the Lada Granta of Russian Mikhail Kozlovskiy.