SEATs dominate Marrakech practice
Gabriele Tarquini and SEAT continued to dominate the World Touring Car round at Marrakech, with the marque topping its third straight session and the reigning champion his second
Friday pace-setter Norbert Michelisz led the way for much of Saturday afternoon's practice session on the streets of Marrakech, but Tarquini posted a sensational late lap to claim the top spot. His 1m46.1s was eight tenths of a second faster than anyone else so far this weekend, and 1.4s quicker than the best non-SEAT.
Michelisz remained second, still six tenths clear of Yvan Muller's Chevrolet and Andy Priaulx's BMW. The field is much more tightly bunched behind the leading SEATs though, with two tenths of a second covering from Muller in third to Alain Menu's Chevrolet in 10th.
In that bunch are the SEATs of Tom Coronel and Jordi Gene, the BMW of Augusto Farfus, the Chevrolet of Rub Huff and Michel Nykjaer's Leon.
Tiago Monteiro was just outside the top 10 in 11th, while local hero Mehdi Bennani was back on track after his crash in the earlier session and finished top independent with the 12th fastest time.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1m46.143 12 2. Norbert Michelisz SEAT 1m46.987 +0.844 11 3. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 1m47.507 +1.364 10 4. Andy Priaulx BMW 1m47.533 +1.390 14 5. Tom Coronel SEAT 1m47.642 +1.499 14 6. Jordi Gene SEAT 1m47.650 +1.507 7 7. Augusto Farfus BMW 1m47.673 +1.530 12 8. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1m47.675 +1.532 10 9. Michel Nykjaer SEAT 1m47.735 +1.592 11 10. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m47.763 +1.620 10 11. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1m48.104 +1.961 10 12. Mehdi Bennani BMW 1m48.525 +2.382 16 13. Fredy Barth SEAT 1m48.564 +2.421 13 14. Franz Engstler BMW 1m48.603 +2.460 9 15. Stefano D'Aste BMW 1m48.700 +2.557 15 16. Darryl O'Young Chevrolet 1m49.799 +3.656 11 17. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet 1m49.975 +3.832 13 18. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1m50.143 +4.000 13 19. Andrey Romanov BMW 1m51.157 +5.014 10 20. Ismail Sbai Chevrolet 1m53.127 +6.984 13
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