Marrakech - Race 2: Chevrolet trio... in reverse order

Yvan Muller wins from Rob Huff and Alain Menu

By Franck Drui

15 April 2012 - 18:40
Marrakech - Race 2: Chevrolet trio... in

The Chevrolet drivers encored the 1-2-3 finish in the second race; however this time they were classified in reverse order compared to Race 1: Yvan Muller won from Rob Huff and Alain Menu.

Despite starting from seventh, nine and tenth on the grid, the Cruze cars had no problems in recovering to fill the podium positions once again. Their superiority on the straight lines of Marrakech was overwhelming and the Muller-Huff-Menu express had no problems in overtaking the competitors one by one, lap after lap.

The rest of the field had to be contented to fight for positions from fourth onwards. And eventually Tom Coronel emerged as the best of the rest one more time, beating Yokohama Trophy winner Stefano D’Aste by inches.

Like in today’s first race, one of the Ford cars scored points. This time thanks to James Nash, who even managed to take the lead for a few laps before being swallowed up by the Chevrolet men. And things for Team Aon could have even better without a technical problem that stopped Tom Chilton on his way to finish in the points again.

Key moments
Start – Monteiro and Chilton make contact, while Nash takes the lead from Engstler and Coronel
Lap 1 – Nash complete Ford’s very first WTCC lap in the lead
Lap 1 – Muller, Huff and Menu overtake MacDowall who was sixth
Lap 2 – Muller, Huff and Menu overtake D’Aste who was fifth
Lap 3 – Muller, Huff and Menu overtake Monteiro who was fourth and Coronel who was third
Lap 4 – Muller overtakes Engstler for second, they make contact; Huff overtakes Engstler for third
Lap 5 – Muller and Huff move up to first and second overtaking Nash
Lap 6 – Menu overtakes Nash for third; Coronel overtakes Engstler for fifth
Lap 7 – D’Aste and Oriola overtake Engstler who was sixth
Lap 8 – Chilton retires with turbo problems
Lap 9 – Nash drops to sixth behind Coronel and D’Aste

Withdrawals
I. Tutumlu: DNS; T. Boardman: DNS; G. Tarquini: suspension; A. MacDowall: driveshaft; A. Cerqui: driveshaft; N. Michelisz: suspension; T. Chilton: turbo.

Pos. Driver Car Time
1 Yvan MULLER Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 laps - 19m36.836s
2 Robert HUFF Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T +0.381
3 Alain MENU Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T +0.970
4 Tom CORONEL BMW 320 TC +2.153
5 Stefano D’ASTE BMW 320 TC +2.641
6 James NASH Ford Focus S2000 TC +5.052
7 Pepe ORIOLA SEAT Leon WTCC +5.589
8 Franz ENGSTLER BMW 320 TC +5.610
9 Tiago MONTEIRO SR Leon 1.6T +7.374
10 Darryl O’YOUNG SEAT Leon WTCC +12.861
11 Aleksei DUDUKALO SEAT Leon WTCC +13.587
12 Pasquale DI SABATINO Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T +14.273
13 Mehdi BENNANI BMW 320 TC +18.629
14 Charles NG BMW 320 TC +29.173
15 Andrea BARLESI SR Leon 1.6T +31.619
16 Tom CHILTON Ford Focus S2000 TC DNF
17 Norbert MICHELISZ BMW 320 TC DNF
18 Alberto CERQUI BMW 320 TC DNF
19 Alex MACDOWALL Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T DNF
20 Gabriele TARQUINI SEAT Leon WTCC DNS
21 Tom BOARDMAN SEAT Leon TDi DNS
22 Isaac TUTUMLU BMW 320 TC DNS

WTCR

Search

Motorsport news

Pics

Videos