RC Lada rookie Ehrlacher loses WTCC Marrakech race one pole

Ehrlacher, nephew of four-time champion Yvan Muller, qualified his ex-works Vesta 10th in Saturday's session - which handed him provisional pole for Sunday's opening reversed-grid race at the Moulay El Hassan circuit.

After setting his time, Ehrlacher was signalled to visit the weighbridge as he entered the pitlane but drove past without his car being checked.

That was investigated, with the RC Motorsport driver and Honda's Ryo Michigami - who was due to start the opening race on the front row alongside Ehrlacher - later excluded from qualifying for failing to visit scrutineers.

That means Tom Coronel, who won the reversed-grid race in Marrakech last year, will start Sunday's opening round of the season from pole instead after being promoted to 10th in the qualifying classification.

While Ehrlacher and Michigami's exclusions were confirmed at 2000 local time, the grid could not be finalised for some time while stewards investigated Mehdi Bennani for allegedly setting his personal best lap in the second qualifying session under yellow flags.

Bennani was later cleared of any offence, meaning he keeps his fifth place from qualifying.

RACE ONE STARTING GRID:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car
1	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet
2	Esteban Guerrieri	Campos Racing	Chevrolet
3	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen
4	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo
5	Nicky Catsburg	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo
6	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen
7	Rob Huff	Munnich Motorsport	Citroen
8	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda
9	Nestor Girolami	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo
10	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda
11	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda
12	John Filippi	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen
13	Ryo Michigami	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda
14	Yann Ehrlacher	RC Motorsport	Lada
15	Aurelien Panis	Zengo Motorsport	Honda