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Alain Menu takes World Touring Car pole at Marrakech

Swiss veteran Alain Menu claimed his first pole position of the season in an exceptionally closely contested World Touring Car Championship qualifying session at Marrakech

Fresh from a victory in the preceding round at Valencia, Menu denied his RML Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff pole position by virtue of a last gasp effort, edging Huff from the top spot by just 0.028 seconds at the completion of his final lap.

ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel was ecstatic to spoil a factory Chevrolet lock-out at the head of the classification. The Dutchman qualified his BMW third for race one, 0.067s adrift of Menu's pole time, but ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller's third factory Cruze.

The fastest time in qualifying was recorded by Menu in the earlier Q1 session, but the WTCC veteran was unable to match his lap of 1m43.753s at the Circuit Moulay El Hassan in Q2.

"The first two sectors of my pole lap were not that great, and I left myself a lot to do in the final sector in order to beat Rob," said Menu. "I felt if I could have repeated my Q1 performance in those sectors I would have been comfortably on pole. But it's so easy to make a mistake here; you only really discover where the limit is when you're in the wall."

Lukoil Racing's Gabriele Tarquini was final driver to make the cut for Q2; the Italian scraped into 12th position after sitting out much of the session, bonnet up, in the pitlane. Tarquini had a less eventful session in Q2 to take fourth place, ahead of Pepe Oriola's Tuenti Racing SEAT Leon.

The result is Oriola's third consecutive Yokohama Independents' pole position, but the Spaniard was made to work hard by WTCC rookie Alex MacDowall, enjoying another competitive showing in his bamboo Cruze. Despite a lack of a slipstream, Oriola usurped MacDowall for the Independents' pole on his final lap.

The sudden upturn in pace displayed by Tom Chilton's Arena Motorsport Ford Focus S2000TC in practice continued into Q1, where the British Touring Car convert claimed a shock third. In the decisive second session, Chilton achieved his highest qualifying position of the year in eighth.

Chilton's Arena Motorsport team-mate James Nash did well to progress into Q2 after being rammed off track by Aleksei Dudukalo's wayward Lukoil SEAT Leon at Turn 1 in Q1. While Milton Keynes racer Nash was able to pit for repairs, the Russian was forced out of action with substantial front-end damage. Nash finished the second session in 11th, just behind reverse grid polesitter Tiago Monteiro's Tuenti SEAT Leon.

Valencia podium finisher Stefano D'Aste also had a drama-filled afternoon. The Wiechers-Sport driver struck a tyre wall head-on but softly in Q1, before a buckled left-rear wheel in Q2 ended his challenge.

Race one grid:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet            1m43.901s
 2.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet            1m43.929s  + 0.028s
 3.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW             1m43.968s  + 0.067s
 4.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet            1m44.201s  + 0.300s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT          1m44.251s  + 0.350s
 6.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT          1m44.498s  + 0.597s
 7.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet     1m44.544s  + 0.643s
 8.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford           1m44.681s  + 0.780s
 9.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         1m44.822s  + 0.921s
10.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT          1m44.870s  + 0.969s
11.  James Nash            Arena Ford           1m44.982s  + 1.081s
12.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW         1m51.464s  + 7.563s
13.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW            1m45.495s  Q1
14.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet     1m45.692s  Q1
15.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW          1m45.707s  Q1
16.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT  1m45.834s  Q1
17.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW         1m45.965s  Q1
18.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW             1m46.041s  Q1
19.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT  1m46.562s  Q1
20.  Isaac Tutumlu         Proteam BMW          1m47.294s  Q1
21.  Andrea Barlesi        SUNRED SEAT          1m47.872s  Q1
22.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT                     Q1

Race two grid:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car
 1.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT
 2.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW
 3.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford
 4.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet
 5.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT
 6.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT
 7.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet
 8.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW
 9.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet
10.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet
11.  James Nash            Arena Ford
12.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW
13.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW
14.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet
15.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW
16.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT
17.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW
18.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW
19.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT
20.  Isaac Tutumlu         Proteam BMW
21.  Andrea Barlesi        SUNRED SEAT
22.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT

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