Citroën win Morocco MAC3 as Honda hit trouble

Citroën won the Manufacturers Against the Clock challenge in Marrakech, with Lada finishing second ahead of Honda as Norbert Michelisz clipped the wall towards the end of the two-lap run, effectively putting Honda’s chances to an end.

The Lada trio had a smooth run in the two flying laps, with no issues at the start, but as the Honda drivers started it looked clear that the Japanese cars were quicker. However, an unknown issue with two corners to go on Michelisz’s Honda Civic WTCC meant the Hungarian realised too late he couldn’t do the corner flat out as he did one lap earlier and clipped the wall, thus forcing the trio to finish behind the Russian marque.

It was then Citroën’s turn, with José María López sliding to the back of the trio as he had a damaged splitter from Q3. Despite looking much quicker than Mehdi Bennani, who had joined the two works cars in the session, the Moroccan stayed in front and Citroën eventually won MAC3 with a margin of one second from Lada, while Honda finished in third, three seconds off the pace.