Citroën Racing team return to Marrakech

— Over a month after the opening round in Argentina, the FIA World Touring Car Championship continues in Morocco this weekend.

— The Moulay El Hassan street circuit, which takes in some of the avenues of the outskirts of Marrakech, poses a unique challenge for drivers.

— José María López and Sébastien Loeb – currently separated by 5 points at the head of the overall standings – were the victorious drivers here one year ago.

— Yvan Muller and Ma Qing Hua – who performed well in Argentina and will not want to let their teammates slip out of reach – will also be aiming for glory!

Marrakech was the place where Citroën Racing’s FIA WTCC adventure began one year ago. The team made an impact from the start, with the three Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs securing a magnificent 1-2-3 in the first race. José María López triumphed, with Sébastien Loeb second, and Yvan Muller third. In race 2, we witnessed a seasoned rally driver morph into a track star, as Loeb claimed his first win in the discipline, just a few lengths ahead of López!

In a strange quirk of history, the results of the first meeting of 2015 were almost identical. At Termas de Río Hondo (Argentina), the Citroën Total WTCC team once again kicked off its season with a 1-2-3. In front of an adoring home crowd, Pechito López took top spot, with Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb joining him on the podium. Sébastien Loeb then put in a particularly inspired performance in race 2, snaking his way through the pack to secure a well-earned victory ahead of the local idol!

“It’s a win I’ll remember for a long time and it shows that the work I’ve been doing for nearly two years now is beginning to pay off,” said Seb. “Having started from eighth on the reverse grid, I found myself in the lead after taking the right options in the early laps. It was a hard race because it was very hot in the car. Pechito wasn’t far behind, so I had to attack to stop him from coming back at me.”

José María López and Sébastien Loeb are almost neck and neck at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship, with 48 points for the Argentine and 43 for the Frenchman. Yvan Muller is lying in fourth place, twenty points off the lead, due to his failure to score in race 2. In Marrakech, the four-time World Champion will have to overcome a five-place penalty on the grid in race 1.

Ma Qing Hua also made a strong start to the season, qualifying for Q3 and getting himself into a position to win race 2 before slipping on some spilt oil that had not been spotted. Currently sixth in the World Championship standings with 16 points, the Chinese driver has just one ambition: to find his way onto the podium, and preferably the highest step!

A UNIQUE CHALLENGE

The difficulty of the Moulay El Hassan circuit cannot be gauged simply by looking at the track, which is made up of long straight sections punctuated by chicanes. A few kilometres from Medina, Avenue Mohammed VI and the Route de l’Ourika are being borrowed for the weekend to form a 4.545 km circuit. The grip changes all weekend, as rubber from the tyres is deposited on the surface. At free practice on Friday, the competitors will have to contend with particularly slippery conditions.

The sustained braking that comes with long straight sections is the biggest difficulty for drivers, who have to find markers to make sure they slow down at exactly the right moment and are not caught unawares by the cars behind them. They mustn’t brake too early, or too late, as there are no wider stretches conducive to overtaking here. The slightest error can prove very costly, sending cars crashing into the concrete safety barriers – an encounter from which they often emerge second-best!

“As is often the case, qualifying will play an essential role in shaping the weekend’s events. There will only be a few hundredths of a second between the drivers competing for pole position,” says José María López. “As our cars are identical, it’s very difficult to overtake your teammates in normal circumstances. More than at any other circuit, getting a good place on the grid will go a long way towards determining the result of race 1. In the second race, with the reverse grid, we’ll just have to improvise!”

BENNANI THE HERO

One thing we know for sure about this second meeting of the season is who will be the crowd favourite. In his Citroën C-Elysée WTCC prepared by Sébastien Loeb Racing, Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani is bound to win that battle. The man from Casablanca was impressive in Argentina, finishing fifth in race 2, and will be setting his sights much higher on home turf, with a podium place, or even a race win, on his wish list.

The meeting will start on Friday, with a first session of free practice at 12 noon. Saturday morning will be busy, with two practice sessions at 8.15 and 10.15 a.m., followed by qualifying from 12.30 p.m. The two races will be held on Sunday afternoon, at 4.15 and 5.30 p.m. Morocco’s time zone is GMT+1, one hour behind France.