Rob Huff leads a Honda 1-2-3 in hard-fought Marrakech qualifying

Rob Huff took pole position at Marrakech in an extremely tense qualifying session. The Brit qualified ahead of team-mates Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro with very tiny margins, forming a Honda 1-2-3 for tomorrow’s main race. Championship leader José María López had looked strong in the first sector on his lap in the one-lap shootout for Citroën, but ultimately had to settle for fourth after damaging the car in the second sector, while James Thompson will start from pole position for the reversed-grid opening race in his Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1.

In Q1 Rob Huff led the way ahead of José María López, who disrupted the Hondas with Tiago Monteiro finishing third. Nicky Catsburg improved to fourth in his last run, with the Lada driver having been previously overtaken by Norbert Michelisz, but the Hungarian had his lap disallowed due to a track limits infringement and was brought back down to fifth.

Yvan Muller, who had sat outside the vital top 12 cut-off for most of the session, managed to climb up to sixth ahead of Thed Björk, who had also looked at risk of being knocked out in the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60. Gabriele Tarquini finished eighth ahead of top-placed independent Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze, with James Thompson in tenth ahead of late improver Tom Chilton in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën. Hugo Valente was the last driver to qualify for the second segment of the session in 12th, with local hero Mehdi Bennani a surprising casualty at his home race in his privateer Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

Q2 saw again a very intense battle, with the Hondas initially claiming a 1-2-3 before López improved his lap time to take over at the top of the time sheets. The Argentinian finished the session ahead of the three Honda drivers, with Michelisz ahead of Monteiro and Huff. Nicky Catsburg finished the session in fifth, the last available spot for access in the third segment of qualifying, while Yvan Muller just missed out on the final shootout, claiming sixth just 0.011s shy of the Lada driver. Tom Coronel was the fastest independent in seventh, ahead of Volvo’s Björk, with Hugo Valente in ninth to form the provisional front row in the reversed-grid opening race alongside James Thompson in the Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze.

Q3 was incredibly tight, with only Nicky Catsburg slightly off the pace as he set a 1:22.161 that was only good enough for fifth. Huff was the second driver to join the track and set an unbeatable 1:21.743, although both team-mates Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz finished within little more than a tenth from the pole sitter. Last out on track was López, who initially was more than a tenth faster than Huff, but lost ground in the second sector to claim fourth at the end of the lap.

The opening race will start tomorrow at 12:15, with James Thompson on pole position, while the main race is scheduled for 17:15 local time with Huff leading the field.