Gabriele Tarquini continued his dominance of the opening weekend of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in Morocco by winning the final race of the weekend to leave Marrakech as the championship leader.
At the start of the race pole-sitter Tarquini got off to another strong start, whilst behind him there was contact between second on the grid Yvan Muller and third-placed Norbert Michelisz.
That allowed Muller’s YMR team-mate Thed Björk to jump through into second, whilst Michelisz fell back to fifth as a result, behind Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher.
On lap five the Audi of Gordon Shedden shot down the Turn 7 escape road, with his Audi seemingly running out of stopping power early on in the race and the Scot dropping from 11th to 20th as a result.
Lap eight saw Frédéric Vervisch, like Shedden, appear to run out of brakes in his Comtoyou Racing Audi, with the Belgian clipping the rear of Pepe Oriola’s CUPRA as he shot down the Turn 7 escape road, clipping the concrete barrier in the process.
That necessitated the first two-lap safety car period in order to recover the stricken RS3.
The race resumed for another six laps before the Peugeot of Mat’o Homola tagged the rear of Nathanël Berthon’s Audi, spinning him across the circuit after Turn 6 and incredibly without contacting the barriers.
However the Frenchman was unable to continue and another two lap safety car intervention was required to clear the circuit.
Tarquini’s biggest challenge for the win appeared likely to come from Björk until the Swede suddenly slowed on lap 18, before his Hyundai picked up power again a matter of seconds later. The delay was enough for Muller to get through though, and the order remained the same for the rest of the race.
That gave BRC Racing’s Tarquini a second win of the weekend and lifted the 56-year-old Italian to the top of the standings, 11 points clear of Björk.
“The car is fantastic; the pace was great,” said Tarquini. “I deserved this win much more than yesterday because I started from pole position.
“It was not easy after the crash I had in race two, but the guys have worked very hard to repair the car and the car was perfect.
“I did not change the brakes – I did two races with the same brakes, but that’s it. The car is fantastic and I just had the pace to keep Thed far away – it was incredible. I am over the moon and I hope that the dream continues!”
Ehrlacher finished the race in fourth, ahead of Michelisz in fifth, who never recovered after Muller’s start-line block, for which the Frenchman received only a reprimand during the race.
Sébastien Loeb Racing duo Mehdi Bennani and Rob Huff were sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Münnich Motorsport’s James Thompson in eighth – with the Brit following up his top ten in race two with more points in race three.
Race two winner Jean-Karl Vernay and Campos Racing’s Oriola completed the top ten, whilst his team-mate John Filippi just missed out and was 11th, despite strong late-race pressure from the Honda of Tom Coronel in 12th.
The WTCR reconvenes in Hungary for the second meeting of the season on the 28 – 29 April.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 23 | 23 LAPS | 1:26.150 | 1 |
| 2 | 48 | Yvan MULLER |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 23 | 2.524 | 1:26.643 | 2 |
| 3 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 23 | 2.922 | 1:26.168 | 4 |
| 4 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic TCR | 23 | 4.645 | 1:26.469 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 23 | 5.937 | 1:26.663 | 3 |
| 6 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 23 | 6.631 | 1:26.813 | 7 |
| 7 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 23 | 8.121 | 1:26.849 | 6 |
| 8 | 15 | James THOMPSON | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic TCR | 23 | 9.932 | 1:26.892 | 8 |
| 9 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 23 | 10.743 | 1:26.512 | 9 |
| 10 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 23 | 13.74 | 1:26.934 | 10 |
| 11 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 23 | 14.599 | 1:26.882 | 15 |
| 12 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 23 | 14.838 | 1:26.780 | 14 |
| 13 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 23 | 16.011 | 1:26.932 | 16 |
| 14 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic TCR | 23 | 16.475 | 1:26.822 | 13 |
| 15 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 23 | 18.464 | 1:27.113 | 21 |
| 16 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 23 | 19.526 | 1:27.321 | 23 |
| 17 | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 23 | 20.205 | 1:26.953 | 17 |
| 18 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:26.672 | 11 |
| R | 88 | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 17 | DNF | 1:27.614 | 22 |
| R | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 15 | DNF | 1:26.824 | 20 |
| R | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 13 | DNF | 1:27.130 | 24 |
| R | 66 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:32.149 | 19 |
| R | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 6 | DNF | 1:26.992 | 12 |
| R | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 18 |
| NS | 20 | Denis DUPONT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | – | DNS | N/A | 25 |