Tom Coronel takes surprise lead in Marrakech FP2
Tom Coronel pulled a surprise on the field to take the lead in the final moments of the second free practice session at Marrakech, Morocco. The ROAL Motorsport driver finished ahead of Honda’s Rob Huff and Citroën’s José María López.
At the beginning of the session Tiago Monteiro jumped up to the lead followed by López, and the two started swapping places until the situation eventually settled with the Honda driver ahead of the Argentinian with 10 minutes to go.
After a round of stops the drivers went back on track and improvements saw Yvan Muller climb up the order to fourth, but the Frenchman was soon demoted by testing pace-setter Rob Huff, who claimed the lead ahead of López and fellow Honda driver Norbert Michelisz. Nicky Catsburg also entered the top five, demoting Muller to fifth. Lada’s Hugo Valente lap was disallowed due to track limits infringements at Turn 12.
As the session came to an end, Coronel surprisingly set the fastest second sector and took the lead of the session with just seconds to go. There were no improvements under the chequered flag, leaving the Chevrolet driver in the lead ahead of Huff and López. Norbert Michelisz finished fourth ahead of Tiago Monteiro, with Lada’s Nicky Catsburg in sixth. Despite a massive improvement compared to this morning’s 14th position, Yvan Muller is still seventh and 0.8s off the pace in his Citroën C-Elysée.
Gabriele Tarquini finished in eighth for Lada, with James Thompson entering the top ten by claiming ninth. Home hero Mehdi Bennani completed the top ten in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée.
Next up for the WTCC is Qualifying, with Q1 scheduled for 15:00 local time.
