Tarquini takes pole at Marrakech

The reigning champion's place at the front was cemented when Michel Nykjaer crashed his SEAT Leon at the final chicane and brought Q2 to an early end.

Tarquini will share the front row with Rob Huff, who posted his best time of the weekend in his Chevrolet Cruze just moments before Nykjaer's accident.

The SEATs of Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro will share row two, ahead of Yvan Muller's Chevrolet. The SEATs of Nykjaer, Tom Coronel and Fredy Barth qualified sixth, seventh and eighth, with Franz Engstler leading the independents' class in ninth despite an accident at the last corner cutting his session short.

Norbert Michelisz will start 10th after he crashed at the end of Q1 and was unable to take part in Q2. The Hungarian slid his SEAT Leon into a wall just seconds after claiming the top spot in Q1.

Alain Menu was the first big hitter to fall out of qualifying, when he crashed his Chevrolet Cruze at the final chicane. He was in the top 10 at the time but was pushed down to 13th by the end of Q1.

The BMWs of Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx also failed to make it through to Q2. They were lying 11th and 12th in the final minute of Q1 and were both on quick laps when Michelisz's crash prevented them both from finishing.

Local hero Mehdi Bennani was cheered vociferously by the partizan crowd and will start his home race in 16th place.

Pos Driver               Car          Q1           Q2
 1. Gabriele Tarquini    SEAT         1m46.626s    1m45.830s
 2. Rob Huff             Chevrolet    1m46.662s    1m46.364s
 3. Jordi Gene           SEAT         1m46.675s    1m46.375s
 4. Tiago Monteiro       SEAT         1m47.601s    1m46.696s
 5. Yvan Muller          Chevrolet    1m46.891s    1m46.705s
 6. Michel Nykjaer       SEAT         1m46.942s    1m46.751s
 7. Tom Coronel          SEAT         1m47.139s    1m47.044s
 8. Fredy Barth          SEAT         1m46.899s    1m48.027s
 9. Franz Engstler       BMW          1m47.541s    1m48.994s
10. Norbert Michelisz    SEAT         1m46.437s    no time
11. Augusto Farfus       BMW          1m47.616s
12. Andy Priaulx         BMW          1m47.752s
13. Alain Menu           Chevrolet    1m47.761s
14. Stefano D'Aste       BMW          1m48.252s
15. Sergio Hernandez     BMW          1m48.556s
16. Mehdi Bennani        BMW          1m48.854s
17. Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet    1m49.028s
18. Darryl O'Young       Chevrolet    1m49.313s
19. Andrey Romanov       BMW          1m51.014s
20. Ismail Sbai          Chevrolet    1m53.195s