Citroën’s José María López continued to set the pace at his home round of the World Touring Car Championship in Argentina, setting the fastest time in second practice ahead of team-mate Sébastien Loeb.
Championship leader López had originally set the pace at the start of the session, which was delayed by 45 minutes due to the safety helicopter not having arrived at the circuit.
López’s initial time of 1:45.051 was soon bettered by Loeb, who went fastest after ten minutes with a lap of 1:44.585. However López went better still just seven minutes later, before improving his time again in the final five minutes of the session.
A surprise third fastest was Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, who ended the session as the top Honda driver, just 0.399 seconds off the pace. He finished ahead of the third Citroën of Yvan Muller, who was a mere 0.010 seconds further back.
Works’ Honda drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro in fifth and seventh positions were separated by the independent Zengő Motorsport car of Norbert Michelisz. The trio were the only other drivers to be within a second of López during the session.
Tom Chilton was the top Chevrolet driver in his ROAL Motorsport Cruze in eighth, a position the Brit held throughout the half-hour session.
Completing the top ten were Campos Racing pair Hugo Valente and Dušan Borković, who both managed to pip LADA’s Rob Huff in the closing five minutes. Encouragingly for the LADA team, Huff was ‘only’ 1.652 seconds off the ultimate pace around the 4.8 km circuit.
As has become the routine, Franz Engstler was the quickest driver in the TC2 category, ahead of John Filippi and local driver Camilo Echevarría.
Second practice takes place at 15:00 BST (16:00 CEST, 11:00 ART).
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 | 11 | 1:43.889 | |
| 2 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:44.149 | 0.260 |
| 3 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:44.288 | 0.399 |
| 4 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 1:44.298 | 0.409 |
| 5 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 13 | 1:44.528 | 0.639 |
| 6 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 1:44.675 | 0.786 |
| 7 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 12 | 1:44.719 | 0.830 |
| 8 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 13 | 1:45.259 | 1.370 |
| 9 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:45.302 | 1.413 |
| 10 | 98 | TC1 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 12 | 1:45.541 | 1.652 |