WTCC – Lopez and Loeb make Citroën shine in Argentina

José-Maria Lopez took victory on home soil in Race 1 at the Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo where he started on pole while maintaining the advantage over his teammates Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb. The Argentinian and the Alsatians thus offered a superb hat-trick to Citroën. The rafter manufacturer could even hope for a quadruple with Ma Qing Hua who finally took seventh place after missing his start from fourth position.

The Hondas regained momentum following the C-Elysée with Tiago Monteiro on the first Civic ahead of Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz. On the other hand, Lada had less success since James Thompson and Rob Huff suffered from contact in the peloton. Hugo Valente (Chevrolet) had another accident and saw his weekend end prematurely.

Sébastien Loeb gave the Reds a second victory by winning Race 2 ahead of José-Maria Lopez who is the first leader of the Championship, after a superb takeoff from the Citroëns. Yvan Muller could have offered his team another hat-trick, but the four-time world champion had to go to the pits following a passage on the grass, shortly after contact with Mehdi Bennani (Citroën). The Honda drivers benefited from this as Tiago Monteiro took the last step of the podium ahead of Gabriele Tarquini. The Moroccan completes the top five. while Grégoire Demoustier (Chevrolet) finished in the top ten.

Discover the report of the WTCC in Argentina produced by our special correspondent in issue 2002 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.