Championship leader José María López lead a Citroën Racing 1-2-3 in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at Suzuka, ahead of team-mates Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller.
The order was established early on in the half-hour session, with López immediately hitting the top of the times ahead of Loeb and Muller. They would remain in that order, albeit with faster laptimes, until the end of the session, with the Argentine completing a lap of 2:06.987 on the WTCC’s first visit to the full-length Suzuka circuit.
Honda’s Tiago Monteiro was fourth fastest, less than a tenth slower than third-placed Muller but 1.415 seconds slower than López.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was the top Chevrolet driver in fifth, just over two seconds off the pace, ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton in sixth.
The second works Honda of Gabriele Tarquini was seventh fastest, with the Italian failing to set a lap time early on in the session due to small issues with his Civic. He was ahead of Campos’ Dušan Borković in eighth.
Completing the top ten were LADA drivers Rob Huff and James Thompson, who lapped the circuit around 3.3 seconds slower than the pace-setting Citroën.
Problems for the WTCC’s newest race winner Mehdi Benanni meant that the Proteam driver failed to post a time in the session.
Franz Engstler led the way in the TC2 class in his aging BMW, ahead of Campos’ John Filippi and Liqui Moly’s Filipe Clemente de Souza. Henry Kwong in the second TC2 SEAT caused the only red flag stoppage when he had a small off around halfway through the session.
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 2:06.987 | |
| 2 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 2:07.778 | 0.791 |
| 3 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 2:08.327 | 1.340 |
| 4 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 2:08.402 | 1.415 |
| 5 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 13 | 2:09.041 | 2.054 |
| 6 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 2:09.338 | 2.351 |
| 7 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 2:09.934 | 2.947 |
| 8 | 98 | TC1 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 2:10.236 | 3.249 |
| 9 | 12 | TC1 | Rob HUFF | |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 12 | 2:10.310 | 3.323 |
| 10 | 11 | TC1 | James THOMPSON | |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 12 | 2:10.337 | 3.350 |