Marrakech - Race 2: Chevrolet trio... in reverse order
Yvan Muller wins from Rob Huff and Alain Menu
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 |
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