Citroën’s José María López posted the fastest time in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at the Shanghai International Circuit, 0.199 seconds ahead of team-mate and title rival Yvan Muller.
The Argentine posted the time of 1:50.396 in the closing minutes of the session, having focussed on making set-up changes to his C-Elysée in the first half of testing.
Muller had thus been on top of the time for the majority of the half-hour session, ending up two tenths down on López.
Norbert Michelisz was the top Honda in third for Zengő Motorsport, ahead of Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb in fourth.
Gabriele Tarquini was the lead works’ Honda in fifth, ahead of Citroën’s local driver Ma Qing Hua in sixth. Ensuring that all four Hondas ended in the top ten were Mehdi Benanni in seventh and Tiago Monteiro in eighth.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was the best Chevrolet driver in ninth ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton, who completed the top ten.
Fresh from securing their first-ever win in the series, all three LADAs were more than two seconds off the pace. James Thompson was the top driver in 11th, ahead of team-mates Rob Huff and Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
In TC2 Franz Engstler was once again fastest, 7.508 seconds off the pace in his ageing BMW machinery. Campos Racing’s John Filippi was the only other TC2 driver within ten seconds of the pace, with local drivers Filipe Clemente de Souza and William Lok almost six seconds slower than Engstler around the 4.6 km circuit.
There was no time from Campos Racing’s Dušan Borković, who remained in the pits with a steering pump failure during the session.
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 1:50.396 | |
| 2 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:50.595 | 0.199 |
| 3 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:50.750 | 0.354 |
| 4 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 12 | 1:50.901 | 0.505 |
| 5 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 1:51.097 | 0.701 |
| 6 | 33 | TC1 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:51.131 | 0.735 |
| 7 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 1:51.354 | 0.958 |
| 8 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:51.544 | 1.148 |
| 9 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:51.978 | 1.582 |
| 10 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 10 | 1:52.433 | 2.037 |