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Marrakech WTCC: Yvan Muller resists Sebastien Loeb for race two win

Yvan Muller survived race-long pressure from Citroen team-mate Sebastian Loeb to earn victory in the second World Touring Car Championship race in Marrakech

Muller led away from pole position and managed to hold off Loeb, who didn't stray further than a second from the back of Muller's C-Elysee.

The top two Citroens escaped out of reach very quickly on the first lap, thanks to a pile-up at the first corner.

Norbert Michelisz tapped the back of Tom Coronel's ROAL Chevrolet, which in turn punted Tiago Monteiro off into the barriers at Turn 1.

Michelisz recovered to a sixth-placed finish, but Coronel and Monteiro retired due to the incident.

Amid the first corner melee, race one winner Jose Maria Lopez managed to take five positions on the first lap alone, and despite resolute defending by Hugo Valente and Tom Chilton, the Argentinian was soon up into a third position he wouldn't cede.

Chilton took fourth, after the disappointment of hitting team-mate Coronel in the first race, ahead of Valente who survived a couple of incidents with Mehdi Bennani.

The Moroccan's penultimate lap lunge on Valente dropped him into the clutches of a four-car train. Norbert Michelisz stole sixth ahead of Gabriele Tarquini and Stefano D'Aste, as all three passed Bennani.

Ma Qing Hua was set to make it an all-Citroen top four before he lost it under braking on lap eight.

He had started eighth, but could only finish 12th after hitting the barriers.

Lada took its first point for the new Vesta with James Thompson in 10th, but its other two cars were eliminated when Mikhail Kozlovskiy - making his first appearance of 2015 - appeared to lose his Vesta under braking and hit Rob Huff.

RESULTS - 14 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 24m22.255s
2 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 0.552s
3 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 18.113s
4 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 22.754s
5 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 39.496s
6 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 40.215s
7 James Thompson LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 54.634s
8 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 55.245s
9 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 56.490s
10 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 59.952s
11 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1m07.677s
12 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1m10.653s
- Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet Retirement
- Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada Retirement
- Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda Retirement
- Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Retirement
- Mikhail Kozlovskiy LADA Sport Rosneft Lada Retirement

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Jose Maria Lopez 93
2 Sebastien Loeb 76
3 Yvan Muller 57
4 Ma Qinghua 38
5 Gabriele Tarquini 38
6 Tiago Monteiro 36
7 Mehdi Bennani 26
8 Tom Chilton 21
9 Norbert Michelisz 18
10 Stefano D'Aste 12
11 James Thompson 6
12 John Filippi 4
13 Hugo Valente 4
14 Rickard Rydell 3
15 Gregoire Demoustier 1
16 Rob Huff 1

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