NEWS ARCHIVE
Warm up went without incident this morning as the WTCC drivers took to the track for a 15-minute session ahead of this afternoon’s races in Morocco. A trio of SEAT León TDI cars were fastest in the session with Tom Coronel posting the quickest time of the morning with a lap of 1:46.125. His SR-Sport team mates, Tiago Monteiro (1:46.144) and Jordi Gené (1:46.443) were second and third respecitively. BMW Team RBM also made up some ground with Augusto Farfus recording the fourth quickest time.
FIA President Jean Todt paid a visit to Marrakech’s circuit on Saturday and Sunday. Todt spent time with Marcello Lotti, promoter of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and representatives of the Fédération Royale Morocaine de Sport Automobile. He was then shown around the racetrack and its facilities and took a walk along the pit lane to meet WTCC teams and drivers. He finally joined the drivers for a family picture in support of the United Nations’ Make Roads Safe campaign.
The World Touring Car Championship held a number of events today, to support the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, prior to the start of the Marrakech round of the championship. Drivers from the championship participated in a Make Roads Safe photo call with FIA President Jean Todt. The photo call forms part of a wide range of initiatives by the championship, such as the branding of its safety car which has been running this season with liveries displaying the Make Roads Safe brand.
Gabriele TARQUINI: “I don’t know why we are so far ahead. I am very happy with the car, it’s easy to drive and I surprised myself as I can push a lot. I saw I had a gap so was able to save my tyres as the lap time was there. The configuration here is much better for us than last year. If the conditions don’t change, I feel very optimistic for tomorrow.”
Gabriele Tarquini claimed his eleventh WTCC pole position – the first of the season for him – taking the top spot for SR-Sport on the streets of Marrakech with a 1:45.830 that improved the existing lap record by nealy four seconds. The Italian dominated proceedings in Morocco today, topping both practice sessions and taking pole by over half a second from the rest of the field.
Reigning world champion Gabriele Tarquini claimed pole position today at Marrakech in a qualifying session full of drama that was disrupted three times by the red flag. More details to follow.
Gabriele Tarquini remained at the top of the timesheets after the second practice session of the day in Morocco. His time of 1:46.143 in the final minutes demoted rookie Norbert Michelisz to second. Tarquini was quick from the off and continued to improve his time throughout the 30-minute session. Hungarian Michelisz then headed the field but ended 0.844-seconds adrift of the reigning champion with a time of 1:46.987. Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller (1:47.507) was third.
Gabriele Tarquini was comfortably on top during first practice in Marrakech this morning setting a fastest lap of 1:46.975, 0.614s ahead of the rest of the field and nearly 4-seconds faster than last year’s lap record. In a cooler 19°C, Tarquini set the pace for most of the 30-minute session in his SEAT León TDI. BMW Team RBM put on a good show with team mates Andy Priaulx (1:47.589) and Augusto Farfus (1:47.886) ending second and fourth.
Alain Menu’s test session ended early in Morocco this afternoon, after hitting the wall in the second chicane damaging the right rear end of his Chevrolet Cruze. “Basically I messed up,” said Menu. “I tried to go too fast into the chicane and the car started to oversteer. I couldn’t avoid hitting the wall but it was my mistake. I wasn’t sure what the damage was so I parked the car and they towed it back.
