Huff clinches Cruze's first victory
Rob Huff converted yeseterday's maiden pole position for the Chevrolet Cruze into the car's first victory in the opening World Touring Car race at Marrakech this afternoon
The Briton made a solid job of the rolling start and was able to hold the flock of factory SEAT Leons at bay into the first corner. Huff was able to control the race thereafter, just over a second clear of runner-up Gabriele Tarquini throughout.
Tarquini pulled clear of his SEAT team-mate in second as Yvan Muller struggled to match the pace of the pair ahead. Muller fell a couple of seconds back and eventually surrendered the final podium place to Jordi Gene.
Tiago Monteiro completed the train of four SEATs in fifth place, with only Rickard Rydell absent. The Swede made a great start from his lowly 12th on the grid but his race lasted only until the second corner where he hit the back of Jorg Muller's BMW and spun. Muller himself had just hit the back of Alain Menu's Chevrolet as the field packed into the tight corner.
Menu continued to finish seventh, just behind team-mate Nicola Larini, and Muller followed him home in eighth. Local driver Mehdi Bennani had a great run to ninth place in his privately-entered SEAT Leon, while Andy Priaulx completed the top 10.
The only other incident of the race was when Tom Coronel got his SUNRED SEAT sideways and clouted the barrier with two laps to go after taking too much kerb in the chicane on the back straight.
Jorg Muller and Menu will share the front row for this afternoon's reverse grid race, ahead of Larini and Monteiro.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 24m04.240s 2. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT +1.729 3. Jordi Gene SEAT +5.583 4. Yvan Muller SEAT +7.044 5. Tiago Monteiro SEAT +7.410 6. Nicola Larini Chevrolet +8.577 7. Alain Menu Chevrolet +9.043 8. Jorg Muller BMW +9.839 9. Mehdi Bennani SEAT +10.398 10. Andy Priaulx BMW +11.011 11. Franz Engstler BMW +12.857 12. Augusto Farfus BMW +17.033 13. Felix Porteiro BMW +27.755 14. Sergio Hernandez BMW +28.287 15. Marin Colak SEAT +31.487 16. Stefano D'Aste BMW +34.793 17. Kirill Ladygin Lada +34.929 18. Vito Postiglione BMW +42.413 19. George Tanev BMW +43.944 20. Jaap van Lagen Lada +55.021 21. Tom Coronel SEAT +1m01.896 Retirements Viktor Shapovalov Lada 11 laps Kristian Poulsen BMW 4 laps Alex Zanardi BMW 3 laps Rickard Rydell SEAT 0 laps Fastest lap, Huff 1m50.833s
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