Tarquini’s win opens the WTCR at Marrakech

Gabriele Tarquini and Hyundai have opened the Golden Book of the new WTCR – the FIA World Touring Car Cup – with an authoritative victory at Marrakech.
The Italian led from lights to flag in a race that was disrupted twice, by the red flag on lap 2 and then by the safety car from lap 6 to 11. The BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR was closely chased by Thed Björk’s similar car and the final gap between them was only of seven tenths of a second.
Rob Huff was classified third in his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, completing a podium of three Touring Car champions, while the 2017 TCR International Series champion Jean-Karl Vernay was classified fourth in his Audi RS3 LMS.
Tarquini’s winning move was a better start than Björk’s who sat on pole position; the Italian took command while there was commotion amongst the mid fielders. A series of clashes resulted in two Audi cars retired (Vervisch’s and Panis’), a couple of drivers forced to pit for repairs (Homola and Coronel) and eventually the red flag.
When the race restarted, Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai stopped on the track having lost the front left tyre, and the safety car was deployed. It was the end of a black day for the Hungarian who had stopped by a technical issue in Qualifying and then was demoted from second to last on the starting grid following an engine change.
When the race resumed, most of the drivers were focusing on saving the brakes on a track that doesn’t offer many opportunities to overtake. Tarquini easily kept Björk at bay and so did Huff with Vernay. 
A couple of fights attracted attention. In that for the seventh place, Aurélien Comte’s Peugeot 308 was chasing the Honda Civic cars of Esteban Guerrieri and Yann Erlacher. For the tenth position, Yvan Muller’s Hyundai remained sandwiched between the Cupra cars of John Filippi and Pepe Oriola who eventually was stopped on the last lap by a flat tyre.
Local hero Mehdi Bennani crossed the line in fifth position, however he was later dropped to ninth by a 10-second penalty for a collision with Guerrieri. 
Drivers will return to action tomorrow morning, at 10:30, in the Qualifying session for Races 2 and 3.

Quotes:
Gabriele Tarquini: “I knew this is a tough track for the car and that is very difficult to overtake. Then I went for new tyres and tried to start better than Thed. It worked and I also benefited from the more experience I have with this car compared to him. Afterwards it was only a matter of managing the tyres and the brakes. In the end I could say it was a quite relaxing race, I only had to focus on not making mistakes.”
Thed Björk: “I’m still a learner with the car. For the whole race I tried to put the pressure on Gabriele and push him to make a mistake, but he didn’t do any. So I concentrated on finishing and scoring the points.”
Rob Huff: “I tried hard, very hard. Especially in the first part of the race, when I was very close to Gabriele and Thed. It was a long and tough race, for the cars and the drivers. To finish third was a good result; we didn’t expect to be on the podium.”

Picture: WTCR/DPPI