Photo: WTCR

Jean-Karl Vernay wins action-heavy second race in Morocco

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Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay won the second race of the weekend in Morocco, leading local hero Mehdi Bennani in his Audi RS 3 LMS to score victory and take the lead of the drivers’ standings.

The reigning TCR International Series champion got the jump on Campos Racing’s Pepe Oriola into Turn 1, with the two making light contact, which caused Oriola to lose momentum and drop a further spot to the fast-starting Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen of Bennani.

Further down the order, Esteban Guerrieri made a great start from 13th in his Münnich Honda Civic and was up into tenth, but by pushing the YMR Hyundai i30 N TCR of Yvan Muller into a spin, which later developed into an intense duel between the pair.

The race settled in with Vernay holding back Bennani and Oriola until lap seven when the safety car was called when Zsolt Szabo’s Zengo Motorsport Cupra was left stranded at Turn 1 following contact from the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo of Gianni Morbidelli.

The race resumed for two laps, with Benjamin Lessennes in the Boutsen Ginion Honda making a move to pass Campos’ John Filippi, but soon after Lessennes was facing the wrong way around the circuit and in the wall, with Filippi marked for investigation along with Lessennes post-race.

With Lessennes stranded, the safety car was out again, with the race resuming on lap 15.

The next casualty of the race was Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Rob Huff, who stopped with a front-left puncture and pulled out of fifth.

Muller was now on the tail of Guerrieri, and the two put on a battle until the end of the race, with the two drivers making regular contact as they battled for eighth position.

Vernay went on to take the win by less than a second ahead of Bennani, with Oriola putting the Campos Racing Cupra third, fighting off a late-race charge from the leading Honda of Yann Ehrlacher.

Thed Björk was the best-placed of the Hyundais in fifth, and with Gabriele Tarquini retiring from the race with damage after contact with Yvan Muller at the start, the Swede moves up to joint-second in the championship along with the Italian, with Vernay now in the lead by seven points heading to the final race of the day at 18:10 WEST/19:10 CET.

BRC Hyundai driver Tarquini will start the final race from pole ahead of Muller, with Norbert Michelisz third on the grid.