Sebastien Loeb Racing's Bennani fastest in WTCC Vallelunga test

Moroccan Bennani notched up 88 laps of the Italian circuit in his satellite Citroen C-Elysee on the way to the fastest time of the day, a 1m37.000s, in the afternoon session.

Jose Maria Lopez completed a half-day of testing and recorded the second-fastest time in his works C-Elysee, 0.348 seconds back.

The reigning world champion had been fastest in the morning ahead of Bennani, before handing over testing duties to team-mate Yvan Muller in the afternoon.

The Frenchman completed 27 laps on his way to the sixth-fastest time.

Volvo newcomers Fredrik Ekblom and Thed Bjork set impressive times in their respective S60s, the former ending the day with the third-fastest time - just 0.004s slower than Lopez.

Ekblom was third-fastest in the opening session and ended the day seventh on the leaderboard, the pair notching up 112 laps between them.

Briton Tom Chilton was fourth in his SLR C-Elysee, ahead of Norbert Michelisz, who was Honda's sole representative.

John Fillippi recorded the eighth fastest time, although his day ended less than an hour into the second session after a test-ending crash.

His best time was set in the morning session, and was enough to leave him ahead of the third SLR C-Elysee of Gregoire Demoustier and Rene Munnich, who completed 48 laps in his team's Chevrolet Cruze.

Lada was not present having opted to test privately at Magny-Cours a day earlier. The marque is also due to run its Vesta at Portimao later this week.

Testing will continue on Thursday.

COMBINED TEST RESULTS:

Pos Driver              Team/Car Time
1   Mehdi Bennani 	Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 	1m37.000s
2   Jose Maria Lopez 	Citroen 			+0.348s
3   Thed Bjork 		Volvo 				+0.352s
4   Tom Chilton 	Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 	+0.427s
5   Norbert Michelisz 	Honda 				+0.524s
6   Yvan Muller 	Citroen 			+0.673s
7   Fredrik Ekblom 	Volvo 				+1.088s
8   John Filippi 	Campos Racing Chevrolet 	+1.224s
9   Gregoire Demoustier Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 	+2.807s
10  Rene Munnich        Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 	+3.017s