Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb ended the official World Touring Car Championship test session in Valencia last week on top of the times, as the French manufacturer’s extensive test programme paid dividends.
Loeb finished the test in Spain comfortably ahead of the works Honda cars of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro who have only begun testing in earnest in the past two months. Monteiro was at the wheel of one of the 2014 cars, whilst Tarquini drove one of the early-stage test cars. No official times have however been released from the test.
The session laso saw the first appearance for the new-for-2014 TC1-specification RML-built Chevrolet Cruze, driven by Hugo Valente due to the Campos Racing driver being the first to place an order for one of the new cars at the end of 2013.
The new RML Cruze experienced minor problems with the mounting of the new larger rear wing, but the issue was soon resolved.
Tom Chilton also took to the track in one of his TC1 Cruzes, which will be run by former BMW squad ROAL Motorsport in 2014.
WTCC rookie John Filippi was also present at the test session on Friday, with the Frenchman to race in the TC2 category in 2014.
