Tiago Monteiro leads the way in first Morocco practice

Tiago Monteiro was fastest of all in the first free practice session at Circuit Moulay El Hassan, with just 12 of the 15-car entry setting times in the newly lengthened 45-minute session.

With the two free practice sessions extended to 45 minutes from this season, the session began at a leisurely pace, with Honda’s Ryo Michigami the only driver to set a representative time during the first 15 minutes as the teams just set in-out laps for quick set-up changes.

The first driver to break under 1:25 was Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton in his Citroën C-Elysée , before Tiago Monteiro put his Honda quickest with a time of 1:23.446, and gradually improved his times throughout the session, finishing fastest with a time of 1:22.685, six-tenths of the pole position time of José María López from last year.

Local hero Mehdi Bennani was the fastest of the three Citroëns which took part in the session, just under eight-tenths of a second behind the Portuguese driver’s time. His team-mate Tom Chilton was third, just over another tenth behind.

Thed Björk was the best-placed of the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvos, just under a second behind Monteiro, while Monteiro’s new team-mate Ryo Michigami was fifth quickest.

The top Chevrolet was that of Tom Coronel, driving for ROAL Motorsport, almost two seconds off the pace, while the lone Lada of Yann Ehrlacher, which had just been cleared to take part by the scrutineers after a last-minute drama, was tenth quickest.

Not so lucky with the scrutineers was Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff. The fancied title contender had to sit out the whole session after his Citroën C-Elysée failed scrutineering as well. The team are working hard to resolve the issue ahead of the second practice session at 11:45 WEST, but are barred from taking part in practice until the issue’s resolved.