Morocco WTCC: Sebastien Loeb heads Yvan Muller in Citroen 1-2
Sebastien Loeb and Yvan Muller achieved a commanding one-two for Citroen in free practice for Marrakech's opening round of the World Touring Car Championship
Former rally maestro Loeb set his fastest time of 1m43.427s relatively early in the half-hour session, before pitting for work to be carried out on the front of his C-Elysee.
Reigning WTCC champion's Muller's efforts to topple his new team-mate were scuppered first by overshooting a chicane and then a series of incidents.
Tiago Monteiro's Honda Civic WTCC stopped with smoke wafting from the front wheels in the first sector with two and half minutes left on the clock.
Yellow flags were required while the Honda was moved to safety, but the session was abandoned altogether when Tom Coronel spectacularly lost control negotiating one of the back-straight chicanes.
The ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze initially smacked the concrete with its right rear corner, breaking the suspension and sending the Dutchman into the barriers on the exit before spinning to a halt.
Nevertheless, Coronel ended the session third fastest, albeit 1.456s adrift of Loeb.
After impressing on Friday, Coronel's fellow Cruze runner Hugo Valente repeated his test position of fourth in free practice.
Cruze TC1s also occupied the next two positions. Tom Chilton ended the morning 0.005s adrift of Valente in fifth, but edged out the Campos driver's team-mate Dusan Borkovic.
Local hope Mehdi Bennani finished seventh, ahead of the third Citroen of Lopez, which only completed five laps.
Superstars champion Gianni Morbidelli finished ninth, continuing to regain familiarity with front-wheel drive.
"The last time I drove front wheel drive was with the Alfa [in 2006]," said Morbidelli, "but we are talking different cars, less downforce, less power, completely different cars."
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 1m43.427s 2. Yvan Muller Citroen 1m43.654s +0.227s 3. Tom Coronel ROAL Chevrolet 1m44.883s +1.456s 4. Hugo Valente Campos Chevrolet 1m44.998s +1.571s 5. Tom Chilton ROAL Chevrolet 1m45.003s +1.576s 6. Dusan Borkovic Campos Chevrolet 1m45.076s +1.649s 7. Mehdi Bennani Proteam Honda 1m45.247s +1.820s 8. Jose Maria Lopez Citroen 1m45.272s +1.845s 9. Gianni Morbidelli Munnich Chevrolet 1m45.287s +1.860s 10. Tiago Monteiro Honda 1m45.326s +1.899s 11. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda 1m45.675s +2.248s 12. Gabriele Tarquini Honda 1m45.982s +2.555s 13. Rene Munnich Munnich Chevrolet 1m46.176s +2.749s 14. Rob Huff Lada 1m46.297s +2.870s 15. Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lada 1m47.919s +4.492s 16. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 1m49.098s +5.671s* 17. Petr Fulin Campos SEAT 1m49.759s +6.332s* 18. John Filippi Campos SEAT 1m52.901s +9.474s* 19. Pasquale di Sabatino Engstler BMW 1m58.132s +14.705s* 20. James Thompson Lada * TC2
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