Gabriele Tarquini wins the second race in Marrakech as Catsburg crashes out
Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini claimed the victory in the second race of the weekend at Marrakech, capitalising after his BRC Racing Team Hyundai team-mate Nicky Catsburg crashed out of the lead at half-distance.
Catsburg started from pole position and made a good getaway in his Hyundai i30 N TCR, with Tarquini second with Jean-Karl Vernay running third in the WRT Audi RS 3 LMS.
The only key mover at the start was Cyan Racing driver Yann Ehrlacher, who moved his Lynk & Co 03 TCR up to fourth ahead of yesterday’s race winner Esteban Guerrieri in the Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR.
The first retirement of the race was local driver Mehdi Bennani, who was also the first retirement yesterday. While yesterday, the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen driver was involved in an accident with the Comtoyou Racing Cupra of Tom Coronel, this time it was with his Volkswagen team-mate Rob Huff, with Huff dropping to last.
The race then settled down until lap ten, when Catsburg’s Hyundai slid off at Turn 10 and into the barriers with a brake failure, out of the lead, and out of the rest of the weekend, with no time to repair the Dutchman’s car before Race 3.
The race was held behind the safety car for four laps, before Tarquini led them around at the restart to the finish.
There were no key moves during the remaining six laps at the tricky Moroccan street circuit, with Tarquini comfortably taking the win by 3.3 seconds ahead of Vernay, with Yann Ehrlacher scoring his first podium for Lynk & Co.
Esteban Guerrieri finished fourth and continues to lead the standings, now just five points ahead of Tarquini heading into the final race of the day, which takes place at 18:15 WEST (19:15 CEST).
