Michel Nykjaer takes first win in Morocco

Danish driver Michel Nykjaer has taken his first career win in Marrakech for the Nika Racing team. The Chevrolet driver passed Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda for the lead on lap six and held on to the finish, which included a five lap safety car period.

Nykjaer launched from fourth on the grid and passed both Yvan Muller and James Nash for second on the first lap and continued to chase Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda throughout the first part of the race, closely followed by Nash.

Behind there was a fierce battle between former Chevrolet team-mates Yvan Muller and Rob Huff. Huff was able to dive down the inside and snatch fourth place from Muller in the opening stages.

Local driver Mehdi Bennani became involved in the battle on lap three as the damaged Proteam BMW rejoined the track ahead of them. Muller was able to get the inside into the hairpin and take fourth at the end of lap three and then hustled bamboo-engineering’s James Nash to the finish.

On lap six there was a double blow for Honda as Tiago Monteiro crashed out of tenth place in the Civic at Turn 3, whilst further ahead on the lap Gabriele Tarquini was passed down the back-straight by Nykjaer’s Nika Racing Chevrolet for the lead.

Monteiro’s car took five laps to be recovered which meant there was just a two lap dash left to the finish, which saw Nykjaer take his first career win and the win in the Yokohama Trophy.

Tarquini secured Honda’s best result to date with second whilst James Nash took his first overall podium result with third.