Race 2: Priaulx claims victory for BMW

BMW Team RBM’s Andy Priaulx won a chaotic Race 2 ahead of Yvan Muller, in the only Chevrolet to reach the chequered flag, and Tom Coronel in his SEAT León TDI.

With two big accidents on the street circuit of Marrakech, the race had two safety car interruptions but resumed racing for a last lap dash to the flag.

Priaulx made a good getaway from pole position as the drama unfolded behind him before the pack had even reached the first chicane.

Norbert Michelisz stalled on the front row of the grid while Tiago Monteiro jostled for position with Rob Huff. Huff then spun into the wall crashing out. Sergio Hernández and the two bamboo-engineering cars of Harry Vaulkhard and Darryl O’Young also got caught up in the incident with Hernández making a heavy impact with the wall and Vaulkhard also crashing out. O’Young managed to limp back to the pits and rejoined after repairs.

The safety car came out on track bunching up the pack behind race leader Priaulx. The order behind him was Muller, Coronel, Monteiro, Farfus, Barth, Menu, Bennani, Tarquini and Engstler. Michelisz eventually got going off the start but was now down in 14th.

On lap seven of 13 the safety car came in and racing resumed briefly with only a few seconds before the next big crash. Fredy Barth past Farfus for fifth and Alain Menu began to follow. Farfus ambitiously tried to hold his line, the front wheels interlocked the two cars spun and crashed into the concrete wall. Farfus made it back to the pits but with the Chevrolet stranded on track amongst the debris the safety car was deployed once more.

The order was now: Priaulx leading from Muller, Coronel, Monteiro, Barth, Tarquini, Bennani, Nykjær, Engstler and Gené.

Racing resumed with just one lap remaining but Priaulx fought hard to take his first win of the season for him and BMW. Bennani lost out on the final lap dropping two places to ninth but still took the Independents’ trophy. Engstler was the only other driver to lose positions on the final lap dropping down from ninth to 12th in his BMW 320si.

SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED’s Frey Barth took the rookie honours for the second time today adding a fifth position to his earlier fourth place finish.

Tarquini’s earlier win and sixth position mean he now heads the standings with 70 points from Muller (63 points) and Huff (46 points).

A. Romanov: DNS; I. Sbaï: DNS; R. Huff: race incident; S. Hernández: race incident; H. Vaulkhard: race incident