Three Hyundai cars on top of Marrakech Qualifying
A trio of Hyundai cars topped the first ever Qualifying session for the new WTCR at Marrakech. On a track that was finally dry after two wet Practice sessions, the 2018 Touring Car world champion Thed Björk (1:24.698) set the pole position in the i30 N TCR run by the Yvan Muller Racing Team; the Swede beat the BRC Racing duo of Norbert Michelisz (1:24.834) and Gabriele Tarquini (1:25.059).
TCR International Series champion Jean-Karl Vernay qualified fourth in the WRT-run Audi RS3 LMS (1:25.256), followed by Rob Huff’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR (1:25.294), John Filippi’s Cupra TCR (1:25.405) and Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda Civic TCR (1:25.530).
The top ten were all covered by less than one second and were rounded out by Gordon Shedden (Audi), local hero Mehdi Bennani (VW) and Yvan Muller (Hyundai).
However, it was a sweet-and-sour session for Hyundai, as Michelisz stopped in a cloud of smoke on the track immediately after posting the provisional fastest lap, which resulted in the session being disrupted by the red flag.
Aurélien Comte placed the best of the two Peugeot 308 cars in 12th position, 1.1 seconds behind Björk, while Fabrizio Giovanardi was only 21st in the fastest Alfa Romeo Giulietta with a gap of 1.6 seconds.
The first race will start at 5:00pm local time on the distance of 18 laps.
Picture: WTCR/DPPI
