Norbert Michelisz fastest in first TCR World Tour practice session in Marrakech
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse’s Norbert Michelisz went fastest in the TCR World Tour’s first practice session in Marrakech.
On a shortened version of the Moulay El Hassan street circuit last visited by the World Touring Car Cup in 2019, sub-minute laptimes were achieved straight away and the lap that meant Michelisz ended the morning on top was a 50.802.
Drivers faced dusty and hot conditions when they first left the pit lane for the half-hour session, and Michelisz was first to the top.
His team-mate Mikel Azcona usurped him four minutes in, going fastest by 0.88 seconds. Two minutes later Néstor Girolami became the third of Hyundai’s drivers to top the times, setting a 52.284 as the track became busy. The traffic became so bad in some narrow parts of the track that drivers had to wait half a lap before getting past rivals who were not on flying laps.
Sami Taoufik, one of two local talents racing in Morocco this weekend, was the first to set a sub-52s lap in his Volcano Motorsport-run Audi RS 3 LMS TCR before he joined the rest of the field in heading back to the pits.
Aside from a few drivers taking to the runoff at the final chicane and then rejoining in the path of others, there was little drama until Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher stopped on the pit straight 10 minutes in. He had picked up some track debris in the front grill of his Lynk & Co 03 FL, and stopped for fear of overheating his engine had he continued.
Red flags waved while his car was stationary, with action resuming halfway through the session.
The pace was lowered once drivers returned to doing flying laps, with Girolami setting a 51.546 to lead Taoufik by 0.115 seconds. Taoufik responded with a 51.364, which GOAT Racing’s Dusan Borkovic got within 0.07s of.
Michelisz got even closer heading into the final 10 minutes, lapping just 0.013s slower than Taoufik’s benchmark.
Borkovic then improved again to sit 0.024s behind in third, and team-mate Esteban Guerrieri set a new 51.360 benchmark with less than seven minutes to go. Taoufik came 0.004s short of reclaiming first place with his next lap, but on the lap after set a 51.033.
Girolami put Hyundai back on top a few minutes later by 0.01s, then Michelisz improved three times in his next four laps. The first improvement put him in third place, the second one sent him into first place by 0.061s, then the third grew that gap to 0.221s as he set a 50.802.
Azcona and Guerrieri were fourth and fifth fastest, with Borkovic in sixth ahead of Morocco’s other local hero Mehdi Bennani in the new Cupa León VZ TCR. The top 14 was covered by 0.983s, and Ehrlacher ended the session down in 11th but ahead of team-mates Ma Qing Hua and Santiago Urrutia.
Slowest of all was GOAT Racing’s Rubén Fernandez, who failed to set a representative lap due to a mechanical issue and was 4.311s off the pace having ended his session early.
Team Clairet Sport’s Julien Piguet and Bennani were put under investigation while on track and had to report to stewards post-session.
Free practice 2 will start at 13:00 local time (WEST).
