Photo: Citroën Racing

Yvan Muller leads Citroën 1-2 in second Argentina practice

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Citroën’s Yvan Muller topped the time sheets in the final practice session ahead of qualifying in his Citroën C-Elysée, finishing just four-hundredths of a second ahead of team-mate and current points leader José María López, with ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton close behind, completing the top three.

The session started ten minutes behind schedule following on from the delays that had held up the first session by over 45 minutes.

López led the way in the early stages ahead of team-mate Sébastien Loeb, but there was drama early on after ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel went wide out of the final corner, sustaining damage to his Chevrolet RML Cruze. The Dutch driver returned to the pits on the following lap with flames protruding from the rear of the car, with the team forced to use the extinguishers to put it out. The Dutchman was out of the session and faces a challenge to be ready to take part in qualifying in three hours.

As the session continued, Yvan Muller put in a time of 1:44.214 to go fastest ahead of López in the final half of the session, with López unable to produce a better time during the remainder of the session, with all of the Citroëns running on used tyres in FP2.

Tom Chilton put in a late flyer to go third in his Chevrolet Cruze, separating the Citroën trio, with Sébatien Loeb finishing the session fourth.

Gabriele Tarquini was the fastest of the Hondas in fifth, just ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro, with Hugo Valente and Norbert Michelisz seventh and eighth in their Campos Chevrolet and Zengõ Hondas respectively.

2012 champion Rob Huff put on a valiant show to go ninth fastest, under eight tenths of a second off the pace of Muller in his Lada Granta, which is showing a marked upturn in pace at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit.

René Münnich completed the top ten in his Chevrolet Cruze, while Franz Engstler was again the pace setter in the TC2T class, 17th overall and four seconds off of the ultimate pace, while again his new Argentinian team-mate was unable to set a competitive time in the session.

Qualifying is due to get underway at 15:00 ART (20:00 CET).