Honda’s Tiago Monteiro continued to set the pace in first practice for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Beijing, which was red-flagged early when second fastest José María López beeched his car in the gravel with 30 seconds remaining.
Citroën’s López had been on top of the time in the drying session, until five minutes from the end when Monteiro put in a lap that was 0.170 seconds faster than the championship leader.
Citroën had at times occupied the top four positions in the session, but it would not end in the same order. Local racer Ma Qing Hua improved on his 14th best time in testing to go third, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz in fourth. Gabriele Tarquini made it three Hondas in the top five.
Sébastien Loeb was sixth fastest, whilst his Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller again struggled to make an impact near the top of the times and was only tenth fastest, more than a second off the pace.
James Thompson was the lead LADA driver in eighth, just ahead of team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy in ninth.
The top Chevrolet driver was Gianni Morbidelli in 11th position, with the Italian struggling as he predicted, some 1.246 seconds off the pace. Indeed the only TC1 driver not at the wheel of a Chevrolet outside the top ten was LADA’s Rob Huff in 13th position.
Franz Engstler was the fastest driver in the TC2 class, ahead of Michael Soong, John Filippi and Filipe Clemente de Souza.
Second practice takes place at 17:20 Beijing time (11:20 CEST, 10:20 BST).
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 18 | 1:06.621 | |
| 2 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 1:06.791 | 0.170 |
| 3 | 33 | TC1 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 1:06.937 | 0.316 |
| 4 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 19 | 1:07.005 | 0.384 |
| 5 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 18 | 1:07.229 | 0.608 |
| 6 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 15 | 1:07.269 | 0.648 |
| 7 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 19 | 1:07.310 | 0.689 |
| 8 | 11 | TC1 | James THOMPSON |  |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 19 | 1:07.410 | 0.789 |
| 9 | 14 | TC1 | Mikhail KOZLOVSKIY |  |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 21 | 1:07.471 | 0.850 |
| 10 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:07.851 | 1.230 |