Citroën’s José María López was again the fastest driver in first practice for the World Touring Car Championship in Salzburg, beating team-mates Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb to the top time.
López rose to the top of the times after around ten minutes and stayed there for the rest of the session, which was twice interrupted by red-flag stoppages.
Reigning champion Muller was second, two tenths behind, with Loeb 0.450 seconds off his top team-mate.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel was the fastest Chevrolet driver in fourth ahead of Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente in fifth. Valente had a number of moments during the session, locking up his front tyres through the first chicane a number of times and clipping the tyres on one occasion.
Gabriele Tarquini was the top Honda driver in sixth, ahead of the Zengo Motorsport Honda of Norbert Michelisz. The Hungarian suffered a scary moment with five minutes left in the session when he ran wide through the gravel at the penultimate corner.
Tom Chilton was eighth fastest in his ROAL Chevrolet, ahead of Tiago Monteiro’s Honda and Dušan Borković’s Campos Chevrolet.
The first stoppage of the session was caused after 12 minutes when Engstler Motorsport’s Pasquale di Sabatino went off into the tyres, requiring his car to be removed from the barriers.
The second stoppage came with just one minute left in the session due to Mikhail Kozlovskiy stopping on the back straight with technical problems with his LADA.
Second practice takes place at 11:00 CEST (10:00 BST).
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 | 14 | 1:22.771 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:22.968 | 0.197 |
| 3 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 1:23.221 | 0.450 |
| 4 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 1:23.253 | 0.482 |
| 5 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 1:23.321 | 0.550 |
| 6 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 18 | 1:23.342 | 0.571 |
| 7 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 1:23.508 | 0.737 |
| 8 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 1:23.570 | 0.799 |
| 9 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 1:23.581 | 0.810 |
| 10 | 98 | TC1 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 1:23.587 | 0.816 |