Larini scores maiden WTCC victory
Nicola Larini celebrated his maiden World Touring Car win by completing a double for Chevrolet in Morocco this afternoon
Rob Huff scored the Cruze's first win earlier in the day, before Larini, making his 87th WTCC start, took advantage of a mistake by reverse grid pole-sitter Jorg Muller to get into the lead on the streets of Marrakech.
Muller clipped the wall exiting the hairpin at the end of the eighth lap, allowing Larini and Yvan Muller to drag past the BMW on the main straight, while Huff dived up the inside into Turn 1.
Larini was then able to draw away at the front while the battle for second raged behind between Yvan Muller and Huff, who had made his way through the top eight following his earlier victory.
Huff fought tirelessly to unsettle Muller and make it a Chevrolet 1-2, darting around in the SEAT's mirrors and flashing his lights on the long straights, but Muller's resistance remained firm and he held onto second place.
Gabriele Tarquini finished fifth ahead of Augusto Farfus and Tiago Monteiro, while Franz Engstler was best of the independents in seventh.
Local hero Mehdi Bennani had looked set to claim his second independent class victory of the day, until he followed Andy Priaulx off the road at Turn 1 when the four-time champion outbraked himself.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 27m29.960s 2. Yvan Muller SEAT +1.399 3. Robert Huff Chevrolet +1.778 4. Jorg Muller BMW +2.728 5. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT +3.068 6. Augusto Farfus BMW +3.991 7. Tiago Monteiro SEAT +4.907 8. Franz Engstler BMW +6.779 9. Tom Coronel SEAT +11.084 10. Mehdi Bennani SEAT +15.644 11. Felix Porteiro BMW +31.913 12. Kirill Ladygin Lada +33.688 13. Marin Colak SEAT +39.038 14. Stefano D'Aste BMW +1 lap 15. Jaap van Lagen Lada +1 lap 16. Andy Priaulx BMW +2 laps 17. Alain Menu Chevrolet +3 laps 18. ViktorShapovalov Lada +4 laps Retirements Vito Postiglione BMW 5 laps Jordi Gene SEAT 0 laps Kristian Poulsen BMW 0 laps George Tanev BMW 0 laps Sergio Hernandez BMW 0 laps Fastest lap, Menu 1m51.017s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments