José María López topped the times in the second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) free practice session on the streets of Macau, finishing more than a second ahead of Citroën team-mate Ma Qing Hua.
New champion López was the only driver to post a lap time in the 2 minute 26s in a session which was stopped several times for on-track incidents.
Sébastien Loeb completed a Citroën 1-2-3 behind Ma, with the former rally champion in places treating the Circuito da Guia as if it was a rally stage, including performing a hand-brake turn at the notoriously tight Melco hairpin.
Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz was the top Honda driver in fourth, a further four tenths back, preventing a clean sweep for Citroën. Yvan Muller was fifth fastest, 1751 seconds off the pace of his team-mate at the front.
Rob Huff continued to post top ten times in his LADA and ended the session in sixth, ahead of the Proteam Racing Honda of Mehdi Bennani in seventh.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton ended the session as the top Chevrolet driver in eighth, whilst the two works’ Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro completed the top ten, more than two seconds off the pace.
The red flag came out for incidents involving Campos Racing drivers Henry Kwong and Pepe Oriola. The first was for Kwong, who crashed head-first into the barriers at Lisboa. Just a short time later, Oriola bounced off the barriers several times at Paiol, damaging his car before posting a competitive time.
Further down the order, TC1 driver René Münnich again struggled for pace and ended up amongst the TC2 cars, with even class pace-setter Franz Engstler posting a faster time than his compatriot. Münnich was more than ten seconds off the pace.
Qualifying takes place at 15:10 local time (08:10 CET, 07:10 GMT).
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 | 9 | 2:26.060 | |
| 2 | 33 | TC1 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 8 | 2:27.200 | 1.140 |
| 3 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 2:27.348 | 1.288 |
| 4 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 8 | 2:27.718 | 1.658 |
| 5 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 8 | 2:27.811 | 1.751 |
| 6 | 12 | TC1 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 10 | 2:27.907 | 1.847 |
| 7 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 10 | 2:27.999 | 1.939 |
| 8 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 9 | 2:28.157 | 2.097 |
| 9 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 8 | 2:28.175 | 2.115 |
| 10 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 9 | 2:28.628 | 2.568 |