The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco was the second round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Morocco. It was held at the Marrakech Street Circuit in Marrakesh, Morocco on 2 May 2010. The two races were won by Gabriele Tarquini for SR-Sport and Andy Priaulx for BMW Team RBM, but both races were heavily affected by safety car periods.
Background After the first round in Brazil, Chevrolet driver Yvan Muller was tied at the top of the drivers' standings with SR-Sport's Tarquini. Scuderia Proteam Motorsport's Sergio Hernández was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.
Swiss team Maurer Motorsport joined the grid for Morocco, running a pair of Chevrolet Lacettis for local drivers Ismaïl Sbaï and Youssaf El Marnissi.
Report
Testing and free practice Zengõ-Dension Team driver Norbert Michelisz was fastest in Friday's test session, with SR-Sport driver Tom Coronel second Chevrolet's Robert Huff third. The session was red flagged when Sbaï put his Lacetti into the wall, while Maurer Motorsport teammate El Marnissi stopped with technical problems. Chevrolet factory driver Alain Menu also crashed during the session on the dusty track, hitting a wall and causing considerable damage to his car.
Tarquini topped the first practice session on Saturday morning, ahead of BMW driver Priaulx and SR-Sport teammate Tiago Monteiro. Franz Engstler was the fastest independent driver. Wiechers-Sport's local driver Mehdi Bennani crashed at turn four on his first flying lap.
Tarquini stayed on top in free practice two with Friday pace setter Michelisz second and Chevrolet driver Muller third. Having crashed in the morning session, Bennani was the fastest independent by setting the twelfth fastest time.
Qualifying Yvan Muller was the early pacesetter in Q1, before Chevrolet teammate Menu crashed into the wall on the exit of Turn 14, bringing out the red flags. When the session was restarted, SR-Sport driver Tarquini moved to the top of the timesheets, before being demoted by Zengő–Dension Team's Michelisz. However, the Hungarian crashed at Turn 3 after setting his fastest lap, bringing out the red flag again, this time ending the session early. BMW Team RBM drivers Augusto Farfus and Priaulx dropped out of the top ten just before the session was stopped.
Q2 was halted after five minutes due to oil on the track at Turn 2 left by Engstler after the independent BMW driver had hit the wall. After the green flag, Tarquini set a quick time to move into P1. The session was stopped once again when Michel Nykjær crashed at Turn 10. The session did not restart, giving Tarquini pole position ahead of Huff, Jordi Gené, Monteiro, Muller, Nykjær and Coronel. Fredy Barth started eighth, ahead of Engstler and Michelisz. El Marnissi did not participate in qualifying or the races for personal reasons.
Warm-Up SR-Sport filled the top three places in Sunday morning warm–up with Coronel setting the fastest time. The highest placed BMW of Farfus was fourth and the quickest Chevrolet of Huff was seventh.
Race One It took three attempts at the rolling start for the first race, where all drivers must be lined-up in a two-by-two order before the race director allows the race to start. Once they finally got underway, pole sitter Tarquini led the field through the first chicane. Fellow SEAT driver Nykjær ran wide as he was battling for third position with the SEAT of Gené, resulting in both drivers dropping down the field. The main beneficiary of this was Fredy Barth who moved up from eighth to third in the opening lap. The Swiss driver made a move on second-placed Huff on the second lap, nudging the Chevrolet driver into a slide, which he did well to control and keep his position. Monteiro took advantage to take third from Barth. Further back, Priaulx passed Menu for eighth position and pole position for the second race.
The safety car was deployed halfway through the race after Andrei Romanov crashed his Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si at Turn 15, and Moroccan local Ismaïl Sbaï appeared to spin his car on his own oil. The marshals struggled to remove the stricken car of Romanov from the circuit and so the safety car remained out for the next ten minutes, until the end of the race, allowing Tarquini to lead Huff and Monteiro to victory. Barth, Tom Coronel, Yvan Muller, Norbert Michelisz, Priaulx, Menu and Augusto Farfus rounded out the top 10.
Race Two Pole sitter Priaulx made a good start to Race 2, but drama unfolded behind as fellow front-row starter Michelisz stalled his car. As other cars moved to avoid him, Huff and Barth made contact once again, this time causing Huff to spin into the pit wall. Tarquini also got caught up with the spinning Huff, but got away with minor bodywork damage. Darryl O'Young swerved to avoid Huff's stricken Chevrolet and hit Bamboo Engineering teammate Harry Vaulkhard and then Scuderia Proteam Motorsport driver Hernández. Vaulkhard and Hernández joined Huff in retiring, while O'Young was able to retreat to the pits and rejoin the race after repairing the damage. The safety car was called into action and stayed out until lap seven of 13.
After the restart, Menu attempted to pass Farfus around the outside of Turn 4, but the pair tangled and both veered into the wall on the outside. Farfus limped back to retire in the pits, but the safety car was deployed again to remove the stranded Chevrolet of Menu and clear up the debris from the accident.
The safety car returned to the pits with just one lap of racing to go, with Priaulx fighting hard to keep Muller behind him, resulting in Priaulx brushing the wall at Turn 4. He held on though to win from Muller, Coronel, Monteiro, Barth and Tarquini. Local hero Bennani dropped from seventh to ninth on the final lap, finishing behind Nykjær and Gené. Michelisz recovered from his stall at the start to finish tenth.
Results
Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 1 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:46.626 1:45.830 2 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:46.662 1:46.364 3 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:46.675 1:46.375 4 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:47.601 1:46.696 5 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:46.891 1:46.705 6 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:46.942 1:46.751 7 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:47.139 1:47.044 8 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:46.899 1:48.027 9 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 1:47.541 1:48.994 10 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:46.437 no time set 11 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 1:47.616 12 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 1:47.752 13 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:47.761 14 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 1:48.252 15 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 1:48.556 16 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 1:48.854 17 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 1:49.028 18 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 1:49.313 19 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 1:51.014 20 30 Ismaïl Sbaï Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY 1:53.195 21 31 Youssaf El Marnissi Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY no time set
Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 32:12.815 1 25 2 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +1.117 2 18 3 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.792 4 15 4 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +2.436 8 12 5 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +3.513 7 10 6 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +5.615 5 8 7 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +7.900 10 6 8 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 +8.892 12 4 9 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +10.113 13 2 10 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 +11.959 11 1 11 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +12.876 6 12 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 13 +14.380 9 13 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +15.160 3 14 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +16.347 14 15 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 13 +16.835 15 16 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 13 +18.057 16 17 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 13 +19.737 17 Ret 30 Ismaïl Sbaï Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY 8 Race incident 18 Ret 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 6 Race incident 20 Ret 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 2 Driveshaft 19 DNS 31 Youssaf El Marnissi Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY 0 Did not start – Bold denotes Fastest lap.
Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 36:15.763 1 25 2 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +0.837 3 18 3 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.228 4 15 4 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.464 6 12 5 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.949 5 10 6 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +2.395 8 8 7 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +4.555 11 6 8 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +5.365 13 4 9 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 13 +5.916 15 2 10 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +6.109 2 1 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +8.511 20 12 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 13 +8.940 12 13 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 11 +2 Laps 17 Ret 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 6 Race incident 10 Ret 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 6 Race incident 8 Ret 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 0 Race incident 14 Ret 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 0 Race incident 16 Ret 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 0 Race incident 7 DNS 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 0 Did not start 19 DNS 30 Ismaïl Sbaï Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY 0 Did not start 18 DNS 31 Youssaf El Marnissi Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet LacettiY 0 Did not start – Bold denotes Fastest lap.
Standings after the event
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Gabriele Tarquini 70 1 2 Yvan Muller 63 1 3 Robert Huff 46 3 4 Andy Priaulx 39 3 5 Tiago Monteiro 33
Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Franz Engstler 34 1 2 Sergio Hernández 31 1 3 Mehdi Bennani 27 2 4 Stefano D'Aste 18 5 Darryl O'Young 18
Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 1 SEAT Customers Technology 133 1 2 Chevrolet 118 3 BMW 93
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.
References
Results Booklet PDF at MST Systems