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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