Halfway through the session the young Chinese was timed at 1:51.032, leaving the rest of the field nearly one second behind.
Two other Citroën cars were classified in second and third: José María López’s (1:51.499) and Sébastien Loeb’s (1:51.541). “Track conditions have changed since this morning, so we have worked and found a good set up for balancing the car,” said Ma.
With a few seconds left on the clock, Mehdi Bennani posted the fourth fastest lap (1:51.618) demoting Yvan Muller to fourth (1:51.662).
Except for Ma, the other top drivers were all very close. The gap between López and the Tiago Monteiro in tenth position was less than six tenths of a second. Hugo Valente was the best of the Chevrolet men in senth position (1:51.796), while James Thompson led the LADA trio in 13th. Franz Engstler continued to rule in the TC2T class followed by John Filippi.
Qualifying will start at 13.30.