Tiago Monteiro leads Honda 1-2 in Marrakech FP1

Tiago Monteiro led team-mate Norbert Michelisz home by a tiny margin of 3 thousandths of a second to for a Honda 1-2. The two were considerably quicker than championship leader José María López, who came third for Citroën.

At the start of the session Lada’s Nicky Catsburg briefly took the lead, only to be soon demoted by López. It was not long until the Hondas improved their times, however, forming a 1-2-3 with Michelisz ahead of Rob Huff and Monteiro.

As the session progressed there were some minor incidents, with Thed Bjork going wide as López improved his lap time to split the Hondas by putting his C-Elysée in second. John Filippi and Rob Huff also made mistakes, with the former going wide at the hairpin and the Honda driver having to use reverse gear at Turn 7 after outbraking himself.

Towards the end of the session the track improved a lot, but the Hondas remained on top with Monteiro a blink of an eye quicker than Michelisz, as López stayed in third ahead of Huff. Thed Björk went up to fifth in the dying moments of the session, although an even better lap had to be aborted as the Swede found Lada Sport’s Gabriele Tarquini on his way.

Nicky Catsburg came home sixth ahead of Lada team-mate Hugo Valente, while local hero Mehdi Bennani finished eighth and top independent just ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel in the Chevrolet RML Cruze. Tarquini completed the top ten for Lada, while Citroën’s Yvan Muller seemed to struggle and only finished 14th in the session.

After the chequered flag and the lap that put him in ninth, Coronel outbraked himself at Turn 1, risking a huge crash before saving his Cruze just in time to avoid the barriers.

The second free practice session of the day will start at 11:30 local time.