Photo: WTCC Media

Tom Coronel takes surprise win in tense Marrakech opening race

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At the start James Thompson retained his lead followed by Hugo Valente and Tom Coronel, as Thed Björk struggled at the start and also got in the way of Yvan Muller.

A great getaway from Citroën driver José María López saw the championship leader climb up to fourth, which became third when Hugo Valente ran in the back of Thompson’s Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, effectively taking the Brit out of the race. Contact between Lada’s Nicky Catsburg and Björk meant both drivers dropped down the order.

Hugo Valente was awarded a drive through penalty after his contact with Thompson, which meant Coronel inherited the lead ahead of López and Muller, with the three Hondas following as Tiago Monteiro led Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff. Gabriele Tarquini was seventh for Lada, while Tom Chilton was put under pressure fellow Sébastien Loeb Racing driver Mehdi Bennani, as Fredrik Ekblom occupied the final top ten spot for Polestar Cyan Racing.

The race was tense from then on, with Coronel having to resist López’s attacks as the Argentinian tried to put pressure on the experienced Dutchman at almost every corner, but the ROAL Motorsport driver managed to hold on. On lap 10 the Citroën driver tried a more decisive attack at Turn 1, but went wide and subsequently lost ground.

Coronel was able to have some breathing space after that, but not for long, as López was trailing him again withing four laps. Despite a huge amount of pressure and even a small contact at the hairpin the Dutchman managed to resist and claimed a well-deserved win ahead of López. Yvan Muller withstood Tiago Monteiro’s pressure to complete a Citroën 2-3 ahead of the Honda drivers, with Monteiro finishing fourth just ahead of Michelisz and Huff.

Gabriele Tarquini finished a rather lonely seventh for Lada, with Chilton eighth and second in the Independents’ trophy ahead of Bennani, while Ekblom completed the top ten ahead of Volvo team-mate Thed Björk, who made a great recovery from last to eleventh but still scored no points.

López’s advantage in the championship table goes up to 17 points from Monteiro, with the Portuguese driver starting third in the Main Race, which starts at 17:15 local time.