Marrakech, Race 2: WTCC ace Muller to the front in Morocco

Yvan Muller overcame an opening lap mistake to fend off Citroën team-mate Sébastien Loeb for his first victory of 2015 in the second Eurodatacar WTCC Race of Morocco.

Muller and Loeb, who both hail from the Alsace region of France, were inseparable for much of the 14-lap race with Muller coming out on top by 0.552s.

José María López broke his existing lap record as he charged through from 10th to third with Tom Chilton scoring top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy points in the leading Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 in fourth.

Hugo Valente took fifth after twice clashing with Mehdi Bennani, while Norbert Michelisz finished sixth, one place ahead of fellow Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini.

Stefano D’Aste completed a solid weekend with more points for ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport in eighth. Bennani finished ninth after an eventful 14 laps with James Thompson 10th for LADA Sport Rosneft.

Frantic efforts from ROAL Motorsport to repair Tom Coronel’s damaged Chevrolet in time for the Dutchman to start race two from the front row of the grid proved in vain when he crashed out following a collision with Tiago Monteiro while dicing for position into the opening turn. Brake issues and a spin dropped Ma Qing Hua to 12th behind John Filippi.

Grégoire Demoustier retired with a mechanical fault, while Rob Huff was eliminated in a first-lap clash with LADA team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy, which also led to the Russian’s exit.