The 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina was the eighth round of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Argentina. It was held on 3 August 2014 at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in Termas de Río Hondo, Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina.

Both races were won by José María López driving for Citroën Total WTCC.

Background José María López led the drivers' championship coming into his home round, thirty–nine points ahead of teammate Yvan Muller. Franz Engstler held the lead of the Yokohama Trophy.

Camilo Echevarría joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler on a one–off basis, replacing Pasquale Di Sabatino. Citroën Total WTCC reverted to three cars with Ma Qing Hua missing the Argentine round.

When the compensation weights were revised after the previous round; the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC retained the maximum ballast to keep their weight at . The Honda Civic WTCCs retained of ballast to weigh–in at and the Lada Granta 1.6Ts remained at the base weight of . The Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s gained to increase their weight to .

Report

Testing and free practice López was quickest in Friday testing ahead of Muller and the Honda of Gabriele Tarquini.

López stayed on top in free practice one on Saturday. Sébastien Loeb was second with Mehdi Bennani third in the Proteam Racing Honda.

Muller was fastest in the final practice session, morning pacesetter López was second ahead of ROAL Motorsport's Tom Chilton.

Qualifying The first part of qualifying saw Norbert Michelisz top the times, while Belgium race two pole sitter Gianni Morbidelli did not make it through to the second part of qualifying and lined up 15th for the races.

López was quickest in the second part of qualifying; his Citroën teammates Muller and Loeb also made it through to the final part of qualifying along with Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro. Robert Huff secured pole on the race two reversed grid in his Lada.

At the end of qualifying López claimed pole position at his home race with Muller and Loeb once again making it a Citroën 1–2–3.

Race One Michelisz and Monteiro moved up into second place and third at the start while López retained the lead. At the end of the back straight Muller and Loeb were able to repass Monteiro; Monteiro took back fourth from Loeb before Loeb nudged his way back into the position. On lap five Dušan Borković dropped from 11th to 13th having been passed by James Thompson and Morbidelli while his teammate Hugo Valente pitted with cooling problems. On lap eight Borković suffered a left rear puncture and returned to the pits for repairs. Thompson had been on the tail of Tom Coronel for the final laps and took tenth at the final corner to score his first championship point since the Race of France, the second round of the season. Lopez took victory with Michelisz holding off Muller for second, while Franz Engstler was the winner of the TC2 class.

Race Two Huff got away from pole into the lead, Mehdi Bennani jumped up to second place while Valente dropped to fifth and got a light tap from Tarquini at the start. Muller ran wide on the first lap allowing Michelisz and López to get alongside and pass him, dropping him down to ninth. On the second lap López was on the tail of Tom Chilton for fifth place as Chilton was trying to pass Valente. The Campos Racing Chevrolet delayed López's attempt to pass Chilton. On lap five, Bennani began to fall down the order as Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro, and Tom Chilton passed him, followed closely by Yvan Muller and José María López, who soon overtook Chilton as well. On lap six, López moved into third place, benefiting from strong straight-line speed on the back straight.

Muller then engaged in a close battle with Chilton, who held onto fifth despite several overtaking attempts. Meanwhile, Gianni Morbidelli was given a drive-through penalty on lap six for an earlier collision with James Thompson, which had caused the Lada driver to spin. López soon advanced to second place and began closing in on Rob Huff, who had led from the start.

By lap eight, Muller had overtaken Chilton, and Sébastien Loeb then attempted to pass the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze. The two made contact, sending Chilton off the track at turn 11; he retired on lap ten. On lap nine, López took the lead from Huff at the end of the back straight thanks to his superior speed, ultimately securing his second victory of the day. Huff was second to take Lada's first podium finish in the World Touring Car Championship ahead of Muller in third and Franz Engstler was the victor in the TC2 class once again.

After the race, Borković was excluded from the results when his car was found to be underweight in parc fermé. Echevarría was dropped one place for a controversial overtake on John Filippi.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 Q3 Points 1 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:44.795 1:43.813 1:43.766 5 2 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:44.962 1:44.194 1:44.194 4 3 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:45.216 1:44.128 1:44.310 3 4 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:44.696 1:44.474 1:44.408 2 5 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:45.126 1:44.763 1:45.174 1 6 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:45.208 1:44.821 7 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:45.150 1:45.263 8 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:45.203 1:45.389 9 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:45.843 1:45.542 10 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:45.739 1:45.572 11 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:45.610 1:45.696 12 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:45.348 1:45.830 13 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:45.964 14 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:46.037 15 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:46.068 16 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:46.622 17 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 1:50.499 18 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 1:51.722 19 15 Camilo Echevarría Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 1:55.658 Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 23:10.174 1 25 2 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +2.526 4 18 3 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 +3.271 2 15 4 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 +7.613 3 12 5 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +8.871 5 10 6 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +9.508 6 8 7 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +13.893 10 6 8 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +14.494 7 4 9 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +17.929 8 2 10 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +25.133 13 1 11 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +25.272 11 12 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +26.707 15 13 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +27.483 12 14 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +29.031 16 15 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 13 +1:18.140 17 16 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 13 +1:26.442 18 17 15 Camilo Echevarría Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 12 +1 Lap 19 Ret 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 8 Puncture 14 Ret 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 7 Cooling 9 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 23:16.716 10 25 2 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +1.863 1 18 3 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 +2.896 9 15 4 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +5.311 4 12 5 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +5.893 6 10 6 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 13 +6.523 8 8 7 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +6.978 7 6 8 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 +16.464 3 4 9 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +16.810 13 2 10 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +22.790 11 1 11 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +23.683 16 12 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +29.022 12 13 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 +38.501 15 14 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 13 +1:06.948 17 15 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 12 +1 Lap 18 16 15 Camilo Echevarría Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 13 +1:18.420 19 Ret 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 5 Race incident 5 Ret 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 5 Retired 2 EX 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 13 Excluded 14 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

 — Echevarría received a one–place penalty after the race.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 José María López 310 2 Yvan Muller 250 3 Sébastien Loeb 213 4 Tiago Monteiro 146 5 Gabriele Tarquini 121

Yokohama Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Franz Engstler 167 2 Pasquale Di Sabatino 98 3 John Filippi 93 4 Camilo Echevarría 12 4 Norbert Nagy 12

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Citroën 686 2 Honda 449 3 Lada 247

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

External links World Touring Car Championship official website