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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