[matespace]

 
Sébastien Loeb and José María Lopéz claimed a victory  apiece as the 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship got off to a spectacular  start with two action-packed races in Argentina today.
 
Lopéz, the national hero and reigning WTCC champion,  triumphed in race one to the delight of the 40,000-strong crowd at a  sun-drenched Autó dromo Termas de Río Hondo. However, the 31-year-old was  unable to prevent his Citroën team-mate Loeb from claiming top spot in the  second event, which was punctuated by a safety car period to allow trackside  marshals to clear debris from the track following a handful of early clashes.
 
Yvan Muller finished second in race one following a  first-corner bump with Lopéz as Loeb made it a Citroën podium lockout. Honda  driver Tiago Monteiro completed the podium in race two with second place for  Lopéz – plus the five points he scored for claiming pole position for race one  – helping the Argentine to a five-point championship lead over Loeb.
 
Norbert Michelisz charged through from the back of the grid  to win the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy in race one with Mehdi Bennani taking the  class laurels in the second counter, despite contact with Muller sending him  into a spin. It was an incident-filled start to 2015 for LADA drivers Rob Huff  and James Thompson who both showed promise but were ultimately out of luck in  the searing heat.
 

 
RACE ONE ROUND-UP: HOME JOY FOR CHAMPION LÓPEZ
José MaríaLópez landed his fourth WTCC win on home soil with  victory in race one after the home hero overcame an early challenge from  Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller to claim a standout victory in ambient  temperatures of 34 degrees centigrade. López beat Muller and fellow Citroën  driver Sébastien Loeb with Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini fourth and  fifth respectively for Honda. Norbert Michelisz charged through from the back  of the grid to top the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy category with Ma Qing Hua next  up after the Chinese driver’s Citroën stalled at the start. Tom Chilton,  Stefano D’Aste and Rickard Rydell completed the top 10 with DušanBorković 11th,  GrégoireDemoustier 12th and Mehdi Bennani 13th after the Moroccan was handed a  drive-through penalty following a clash with Rob Huff. Tom Coronel completed  the finishers after pitting with a mechanical glitch. James Thompson retired  with a damaged right-rear wheel at the end of opening lap. John Filippi was  also out after the first tour with damage to his front-left wheel, while  team-mate Hugo Valente crashed out of 14th on lap five and inflicted  substantial damage to the front of his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 for the second  day in a row having crashed in free practice. Valente, who was nursing a sore  thumb afterwards, again blamed the incident on a brake issue.
 

 
RACE TWO ROUND-UP: LOEB SCORES WTCC HAT-TRICK
Sébastien Loeb made it two winners from two WTCC counters by  outgunning local ace José MaríaLópez in the second race in Argentina. Loeb, who  started eighth on the grid, hit the front when Citroën team-mate Ma Qing Hua  ran wide on lap two. Despite his limited circuit racing experience, the nine-time  world rally champion held off López thereafter and had built his winning margin  to almost five seconds following an incident-packed race. Tiago Monteiro  overtook fellow Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini for third with Mehdi Bennani  fighting back from a clash with Yvan Muller to beat Norbert Michelisz to the  Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy. Ma Qing Hua finished seventh after stopping to clear  debris from his car’s radiator but was promoted to sixth after Michelisz was  penalised following a clash between the pair. Tom Chilton finished eighth with  Rickard Rydell ninth and Grégoire Demoustier 10th on his WTCC debut. John  Filippi crossed the line in 11th one place ahead of Muller, whose collision  with Bennani earned him a five-place grid penalty for the next round in Morocco.  DušanBorković retired with damage to his Honda following a high-speed off-track  moment. Coronel led for part of the opening lap until he outbraked himself  heading into turn five. He retired with a mechanical failure on lap five. Rob  Huff, pole-sitter James Thompson and Stefano D’Aste all stopped in the opening  laps, while Hugo Valente was a non-starter.
 

 
YOKOHAMA  DRIVERS’ TROPHY: WIN APIECE FOR MICHELISZ AND BENNANI
Norbert Michelisz hit back from a disastrous qualifying  session in style to take the opening-round Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy victory.  The Hungarian lost a wheel from his Honda Civic on his first flying lap in  qualifying and was unable to set a competitive time as a result. Nevertheless  he hit back by beating Tom Chilton and Stefano D’Aste. Mehdi Bennani recovered  from a clash with Yvan Muller to overtake Michelisz for the race two victory  with Chilton third. However, it’s Michelisz who leads the standings heading to  Morocco next month.
 
RACE FACTS
Race one pole position: José MaríaLópez (Citroën  C-Elysée WTCC)
Race one Yokohama Performer: José MaríaLópez (Citroën  C-Elysée WTCC)
Race two pole position: James Thompson (LADA Vesta)
Race two Yokohama Performer: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën  C-Elysée WTCC)
 
LINKS:
www.yokohama.com.au 
www.facebook.com/YokohamaAdvanAU