Esteban Guerrieri claimed his first FIA World Touring Car Cup pole position in Marrakech after setting an untouchable lap time, and will start the first race of the season ahead of Cyan Racing’s Yvan Muller.
The Argentine clocked of 1m24.773 knocking the four-time WTCC champion off the top spot.
“I’m celebrating quite a lot, as this is my first pole position in the WTCR and I’m really happy.”
“I wish all the qualifying [sessions] would be like this!”
After practice runs were hampered by red flags, the majority of the field made sure to set an early time. Guerrieri employed this tactic which ultimately served him as track conditions changed in the latter half of the session.
“I put in one lap in the early moments of qualifying and then just waited in the pits.
“I think that the sun came out and everybody was trying to improve on my lap time,” explained the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport driver, “but there was probably too much heat on the track.”
The two-time WTCR race winner described his Honda Civic Type R as “mega”.
Despite celebrating his maiden pole, the 34-year-old remains focused on what he must do to take home his third WTCR race win.
With track conditions changing considerably since the damp first practice, the opening race will be even hotter than qualifying. A number of drivers suffered punctures as teams experimented with different tyre pressures.
“I need to have a good start. Then after that I have to just try to manage the race, which is going to be quite hot, because now the weather is getting a bit hotter.
“All that we can do is make a good start and see how the Honda behaves.”
Argentine Guerrieri beat Lynk & Co driver Muller to pole, as the Frenchman damaged the underside of his new Lynk & Co 03 car and was forced to sit out the second half of the session.