López settled for second after ‘first lap war’ in Marrakech

José María López finished second in his Citroën C-Elysée after a battle with race winner Tom Coronel which lasted for the entire race. The Argentinian gladly settled for second once he realised he could not have passed the Chevrolet ahead of him.

“I’m happy for myself and for Yvan (Muller), as we scored an important 2-3 today with a heavy car,” said the championship leader. “I knew before the race it was going to be impossible to pass unless the driver ahead made a mistake, the track is narrow. I was so close to Tom (Coronel) I couldn’t even see the walls sometimes, and I had some problems with the brakes as well so I had to back off.”

The Citroën driver admitted he was hoping for Coronel to make a mistake to sneak through: “I was hoping for a mistake but I knew it would be hard, I attacked but Tom is a very experienced driver and he drove perfectly. I knew second was good, I had Monteiro two places behind and my team-mate behind me, which gave me a lot of confidence. I started seventh, so second is good and after I saw the first lap, which was a war because we saw a lot of pieces flying from cars, but I managed to keep the car in one piece and claim a good result.”

The Argentinian extended his lead in the championship to 17 points, with championship rival Tiago Monteiro finishing fourth as the first of the Honda Racing trio.