Photo: Honda

Esteban Guerrieri wins a battle-heavy first race of 2019 in Morocco

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Esteban Guerrieri delivered the Münnich Motorsport team an opening round victory in Morocco, holding off the Lynk & Co 03 TCR of Thed Björk in his Honda Civic TCR, while Girolami’s team-mate completed the podium, while a few incidents saw penalties alter the final result.

Yvan Muller opted to start from the pit lane instead of his 26th position on the grid following his engine change penalty to avoid any first lap dramas, while Guerrieri got away well from pole and managed to hold off Björk’s Lynk & Co into Turn 1.

Björk’s new Lynk & Co team-mate Andy Priaulx managed to muscle his way past the Honda of Néstor Girolami at Turn 3, and the Argentinian dropped back two places behind Priaulx and the WRT Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay.

Further back, there were instant retirements, with the Comoyou Racing Cupra of Tom Coronel and the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen of Mehdi Bennani both making contact and forced to retire, with the incident set to be investigated after the race.

Johan Kristoffersson, making his WTCR debut this weekend, was also an early retirement from first lap damage to his Golf GTI TCR, seemingly justifying Muller’s strategic call.

On lap five, Vernay made a lunge at Priaulx at Turn 1 and was able to get past, with Priaulx running out wide and dropping three positions.

PWR Racing Cupra driver Mikel Azcona made a similar lunge at the BRC Racing Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz at the same corner on lap 11, with Michelisz losing three positions.

The stewards soon confirmed both drivers would be hit with a five-second time penalty after the race.

Swedish driver Daniel Haglöf, who looked set for a strong points finish with eighth in his first WTCR outing, had to serve a pit stop for a quick repair with five laps to go and dropped to 20th in the final order.

Guerrieri went on to win by less than second ahead of Björk, with Girolami promoted to third following Vernay’s time penalty, with last year’s champion Gabriele Tarquini fourth, and Andy Priaulx fifth on his WTCR debut.

Activity resumes again tomorrow at 11:00 WEST (12:00 CEST) with the three-part qualifying for tomorrow’s two races.