Hungary WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez leads in wet, Sebastien Loeb crashes

The reigning champion headed his nearest rival, Honda's Gabriele Tarquini, by 1.597 seconds in the opening session and 0.508s in the second.

Wet and slippery conditions at the Hungaroring caught out many drivers, and the opening session was red-flagged for 15 minutes after Sebastien Loeb crashed at Turn 1 on his first flying lap.

"Conditions were really difficult," he said. "I was surprised by the first real braking."

Loeb's C-Elysee went nose-first into the tyre barrier, incurring major damage to the front-left bodywork and suspension.

The factory Honda pairing of Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro took advantage of the uncertain grip levels to split the usually dominant Citroen pack.

Monteiro was second quickest during the latter half of the first session, 0.9s down on Lopez, before both Tarquini and Lopez improved on their last flying laps.

Local hero Norbert Michelisz, egged on by the small but vocal crowd in the grandstand opposite his garage, slotted his privateer Honda into fifth place between the Citroens of Yvan Muller and Ma Qing Hua.

Earlier the stewards cautioned Michelisz for exceeding the track limits at the Turn 6/7 chicane, while Stefano D'Aste and Gregoire Demoustier were shown the black-and-white flag for repeated infractions.

D'Aste was the quickest of the Chevrolets in the first session, clocking the seventh quickest time and outpacing Citroen privateer Mehdi Bennani by seven tenths.

Lada got off to a slow start, with all three Vestas outside the top 10, albeit separated by 0.393s.

Rob Huff lost time to a loose front-right wheel, which caused minor bodywork damage.

Tarquini briefly topped the times in the similarly wet second session before Lopez restored his supremacy, taking nearly half a second off his previous best.

Monteiro was third, 0.598s off his team-mate.

Lada unlocked further potential, demonstrated by Huff running as high as fourth having sliced over four seconds from his best time in the previous session.

In the closing minutes he was demoted by Muller and Michelisz, who ended the session fifth overall and quickest of the privateers by a healthy half-second margin.

Citroen's crew repaired Loeb's car in time to complete the whole session and he quickly got up to speed, ending just 0.012s adrift of team-mate Hua, albeit in the lower reaches of the top 10.

There were further directives from the stewards regarding track limits for D'Aste and Michelisz, as well as Tarquini, Hua, Mikhail Kozlovskiy and John Filippi.

Michelisz, Hua and Kozlovskiy were ordered to report to the race director after the session ended.

Follow the Hungary WTCC qualifying session on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 1.30pm UK time on Saturday and the races from 12.30pm on Sunday

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