Photo: WTCR

Gabriele Tarquini wins incident-packed first race in Morocco

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Gabriele Tarquini has won the first race of the new World Touring Car era, leading the way throughout in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR in a race which was suspended twice behind the safety car and red-flagged.

The 56-year-old Italian got the jump on pole-sitter Thed Björk’s Yvan Muller Racing-run Hyundai at the start and led into the first corner, while there was trouble further behind when the Comtoyou Audi of Frédéric Vervisch ran into the rear of Münnich Motorsport Honda driver James Thompson, which set a chain of events in motion which also saw the Honda of Tom Coronel, DG Peugeot of Mat’o Homola and the other Comtoyou Audi of Aurélien Panis caught up.

Panis and Vervisch were out immediately, with Coronel returning to the pits initially to retire, but he was able to rejoin when the race was red-flagged as Vervisch’s car required extra attention.

The race resumed behind the safety car, with Tarquini making a great restart to lead the way ahead of Björk and Rob Huff, with Huff’s Volkswagen having passed former team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay’s WRT Audi at the start.

The race was soon held behind the safety car again as a luckless Norbert Michelisz stopped on circuit after having started from the back, when the front-left wheel came loose on his Hyundai.

The race restarted on lap 11 of 20, with Tarquini, Björk and Huff pulling away from Vernay and Mehdi Bennani.

Tarquini was kept honest by Björk throughout the race, but the Swede was unable to find a way past the experienced Italian and had to settle for second, with Huff completing the podium.

Vernay finished fourth ahead of Bennani, with Gordon Shedden finishing sixth on his WTCR debut.

Esteban Guerrieri was the best-placed Honda in seventh for Münnich Motorsport, but Bennani and Guerrieri will be investigated after the race after Bennani made contact with the Argentinian at the start.

Yann Ehrlacher was eighth in the second Münnich Honda, with Aurélien Comte in the brand-new Peugeot 308TCR, with John Filippi in the Campos Cupra TCR holding off the Hyundai of Yvan Muller for the final points position.

Tarquini now leads the standings on 30 points, five ahead of Björk with Huff third, 12 points behind.

Qualifying for races two and three takes place tomorrow at 10:30 WEST (11:30 CET)