Photo: WTCC Media

Tiago Monteiro leads Honda 1-2 in Morocco

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Honda’s Tiago Monteiro took a lights-to-flag victory in the main race in Morocco, leading team-mate Norbert Michelisz to leave the African country with the lead of the WTCC drivers’ championship.

Monteiro made a good getaway from pole position in the Honda Civic, while team-mate Michelisz leapt from third to second, passing the Polestar Volvo of Néstor Girolami for second into the first corner.

Girolami was followed by team-mate Nicky Catsburg, but the Dutch driver was soon aided wide by Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, with the Moroccan grabbing fourth back from the Volvo S60 driver.

The race was suspended behind the safety car from lap six after Zengõ’s Aurélien Panis stopped on circuit at Turn 5 with damaged front-right suspension, with the French driver the only retirement from the second race.

When the race resumed on lap 11, Race 1 winner Esteban Guerrieri was handed a drive-through penalty after his Campos Racing team had been working on his car in the pit lane’s fast lane before the race start. The Argentinian had suffered with a technical issue and was unable to make it on to the grid to take his starting position.

The rest of the race saw the field mostly hold station. The toughest battle was between Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff and ROAL Chevrolet driver Tom Coronel. Huff had started from the back of the pack after having to repair his steering arm outside of parc ferme due to an incident in Race 1, but was unable to make it any further than ninth during the race.

A mistake for Thed Björk on the final lap saw the Volvo driver lose a spot to SLR’s Tom Chilton, who gained sixth.

Monteiro went on to win his tenth race in the WTCC ahead of Michelisz, with Girolami scoring his first WTCC podium with Volvo.

Mehdi Benanni finished fourth and won the independents’ classification, though the Moroccan faces a post-race investigation for contact with Catsburg.

Catsburg followed, leading Chilton and Björk, followed by Tom Coronel, Rob Huff and Ryo Michigami, with the Japanese driver scoring his first points in the WTCC.

The results of this weekend see Monteiro lead the championship on 43 points, seven ahead of team-mate Michelisz, with Bennani a further four points behind.

The next round of the championship takes place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on April 30th.