2009 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco

The 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco (formally the 2009 FIA WTCC HSBC Race of Morocco) was the third round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season. It was held on 3 May 2009 at the Marrakech Street Circuit in Marrakech, Morocco. It was the inaugural running of the FIA WTCC Race of Morocco.

2009 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco
Race details
Date3 May, 2009
LocationMarrakech, Morocco
CourseMarrakech Street Circuit
4.540 kilometres (2.821 mi)
Race One
Laps 12
Pole position
Driver Robert Huff Chevrolet
Time 1:49.789
Podium
First Robert Huff Chevrolet
Second Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Sport
Third Jordi Gené SEAT Sport
Fastest Lap
Driver Robert Huff Chevrolet
Time 1:50.833
Race Two
Laps 13
Podium
First Nicola Larini Chevrolet
Second Yvan Muller SEAT Sport
Third Robert Huff Chevrolet
Fastest Lap
Driver Alain Menu Chevrolet
Time 1:51.017

The two races were won by Chevrolet's Robert Huff and Nicola Larini, the former taking the first win for the Chevrolet Cruze in the World Touring Car Championship.

Background

After the previous round in Mexico, Yvan Muller was tied at the top of the drivers' standings with SEAT Sport teammate Rickard Rydell. Félix Porteiro had established a 23 point lead over Tom Coronel in the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

This was the first FIA World Championship race to be held in Morocco since the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix. The WTCC saw its first North African driver participate in an event when Mehdi Bennani joined the grid in an Exagon Engineering run SEAT León 2.0 TFSI.[1]

Other changes were made to Scuderia Proteam Motorsport expanded to three cars for Morocco to run a BMW 320si for Vito Postiglione,[2] and Tom Boardman requested a new car which wouldn't have been ready for the Moroccan event so he elected to skip the round and focus on returning for the Race of France.[3]

Report

Testing and free practice

Yvan Muller topped the times as the WTCC cars took to the Marrakech Street Circuit for the first time in Friday's test session. He was closely followed by Chevrolet's Alain Menu and SEAT Sport team mate Rydell.[4]

SEAT Sport stayed on top in free practice one on Saturday morning, forming a SEAT 1–2–3–4–5 with Menu sixth. Coronel in seventh was the fastest independent driver and Jörg Müller in eighth was the fastest factory BMW car, Nicola Larini and Stefano D'Aste rounded out the top ten.[5]

Yvan Muller topped the afternoon session with SEATs filling the top six places. Menu was sixth ahead of Huff and the fastest BMW was that of independent driver Franz Engstler.[5]

Qualifying

Chevrolet's Huff beat practice pace setters SEAT in qualifying to claim pole position, the first for the new Cruze car. Gabriele Tarquini started second and Yvan Muller third. Despite setting the second fastest lap, Menu was demoted to 10th because the Stewards disallowed his Q2 qualifying times after his car did not restart following a mandatory visit to the weighing bay.

In Q1, SEAT had company at the top of the qualifying timesheet in the form of Chevrolet. While Tiago Monteiro initially made claim to pole with a 1:51.086, Menu (1:50.271), Larini (1:50.723) and Huff (1:50.817) stole the top spots. The end of the session saw Andy Priaulx miss his braking point at turn 1 and clash with Hernández who had come off his line to let Zanardi through. Due to the fact he received external aid to restart, Priaulx was not permitted to take part in Q2 and therefore qualified ninth following Menu's penalty. All of the LADA drivers remained out of Q2. Despite not making Q2, Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani put in a strong performance to qualify 14th overall and second of the Independents.

In Q2, the session ended prematurely for Jörg Müller who suffered a rear left puncture after six minutes. He did not post a competitive qualifying time and lined up eighth for Race 1. The pack was tight and at one point during the session just four tenths of a second split the top six. On the last lap Huff charged to the front with a 1:49.789. Tarquini clocked a 1:50.086 on his last lap to secure a front-row place and Muller's best time was 1:50.156. Muller lined up third followed by Jordi Gené, Larini and Monteiro. Engstler qualified as best Independent and BMW driver in seventh, while Menu's qualifying session ended when he hit the wall at turn 2 on his last lap.[6]

Warm-Up

Yvan Muller topped the warm–up session on Sunday morning with fellow SEAT drivers Gené second, Coronel third, Tarquini fourth and Monteiro fifth. Jörg Müller was the leading BMW while pole sitter Huff was eighth.[7]

Race One

Robert Huff converted his pole into a win for Chevrolet, the first for the new Cruze car in its fifth race. Huff led the field from the start to finish with Gabriele Tarquini behind him the whole way to take second. Jordi Gené overtook Yvan Muller on the penultimate lap to secure third. Farfus' team-mate Jörg Müller was the fastest BMW and his eighth place finish meant pole in Race 2. Fellow BMW driver Alessandro Zanardi retired from the race on lap four.

The safety car was deployed at the end of the first lap after an incident involving Müller, Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell resulted in Rydell being squeezed into the wall at turn two and incurring race-ending damage to his car.

Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani was best Independent in ninth overall, while Augusto Farfus was challenged hard by Tom Coronel for 12th position, but in the end, Coronel made a mistake at turn 11 on lap 10 and lost the battle.[8]

Race Two

The second race saw Nicola Larini celebrate his first ever WTCC win. Yvan Muller took second place ahead of Race 1 winner Robert Huff. Jörg Müller led until lap eight when he went wide at turn 15 allowing Larini, Muller and Huff through. The BMW Team Germany driver eventually finished fourth ahead of Tarquini, Farfus and Monteiro. Franz Engstler took the final point in eighth as well as the Independent win. Andy Priaulx was in contention for points until lap 11 where he missed the braking point at turn 7 – he retired to the pits on the next lap.

Mehdi Bennani also went straight at the same point on lap 11 but continued to finish 10th and third independent. The safety car was deployed for two laps at the start after Hernández's car was stranded in an unsafe place.

Results

Qualifying

Pos. No. Name Team Car C Q1 Q2
1 11 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:50.817 1:49.789
2 2 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:51.033 1:50.086
3 1 Yvan Muller SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:50.924 1:50.156
4 4 Jordi Gené SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:51.294 1:50.266
5 14 Nicola Larini Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:50.723 1:50.372
6 5 Tiago Monteiro SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:51.086 1:50.770
7 25 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 1:51.750 1:51.643
8 7 Jörg Müller BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 1:51.593 2:35.400
9 6 Andy Priaulx BMW Team UK BMW 320si 1:51.508 no time set
10 12 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:50.271 excluded
11 9 Alessandro Zanardi BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 1:51.753
12 3 Rickard Rydell SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:51.806
13 8 Augusto Farfus BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 1:51.945
14 30 Mehdi Bennani Exagon Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 1:52.008
15 23 Félix Porteiro Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 1:52.148
16 21 Tom Coronel SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 1:52.271
17 26 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 1:52.401
18 28 Marin Čolak Čolak Racing Team Ingra SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 1:52.504
19 10 Sergio Hernández BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 1:52.622
20 27 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si Y 1:52.733
21 18 Jaap van Lagen LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 1:53.001
22 19 Kirill Ladygin LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 1:53.510
23 24 George Tanev Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 1:53.636
24 31 Vito Postiglione Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 1:53.711
25 20 Viktor Shapovalov LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 1:54.046

Race 1

Pos. No. Name Team Car C Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 12 24:04.240 1 10
2 2 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 12 +1.729 2 8
3 4 Jordi Gené SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 12 +5.583 4 6
4 1 Yvan Muller SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 12 +7.044 3 5
5 5 Tiago Monteiro SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 12 +7.410 6 4
6 14 Nicola Larini Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 12 +8.577 5 3
7 12 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 12 +9.043 10 2
8 7 Jörg Müller BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 12 +9.839 8 1
9 30 Mehdi Bennani Exagon Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 12 +10.398 14
10 6 Andy Priaulx BMW Team UK BMW 320si 12 +11.011 9
11 25 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 12 +12.857 7
12 8 Augusto Farfus BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 12 +17.033 13
13 23 Félix Porteiro Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 12 +27.755 15
14 10 Sergio Hernández BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 12 +28.287 19
15 28 Marin Čolak Čolak Racing Team Ingra SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 12 +31.487 18
16 27 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si Y 12 +34.793 20
17 19 Kirill Ladygin LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 12 +34.929 22
18 31 Vito Postiglione Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 12 +42.413 24
19 24 George Tanev Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 12 +43.944 23
20 18 Jaap van Lagen LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 12 +55.021 21
21 21 Tom Coronel SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 12 +1:01.896 16
22 20 Viktor Shapovalov LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 11 +1 Lap 25
Ret 26 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 4 Race incident 17
Ret 9 Alessandro Zanardi BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 3 Radiator 11
Ret 3 Rickard Rydell SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 0 Race incident 12
  • Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos. No. Name Team Car C Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 14 Nicola Larini Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 27:29.960 3 10
2 1 Yvan Muller SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.399 5 8
3 11 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +1.778 8 6
4 7 Jörg Müller BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 13 +2.728 1 5
5 2 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +3.068 7 4
6 8 Augusto Farfus BMW Team Germany BMW 320si 13 +3.991 12 3
7 25 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 13 +6.779 11 2
8 21 Tom Coronel SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 13 +11.084 21 1
9 30 Mehdi Bennani Exagon Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 13 +15.644 9
10 23 Félix Porteiro Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 13 +31.913 13
11 19 Kirill Ladygin LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 13 +33.688 17
12 28 Marin Čolak Čolak Racing Team Ingra SEAT León 2.0 TFSI Y 13 +39.038 15
13 27 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si Y 12 +1 Lap 16
14 18 Jaap van Lagen LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 12 +1 Lap 20
15 6 Andy Priaulx BMW Team UK BMW 320si 11 +2 Laps 10
16 12 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze LT 10 +3 Laps 2
17 20 Viktor Shapovalov LADA Sport LADA 110 2.0 9 +4 Laps 22
Ret 31 Vito Postiglione Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 5 Race incident 18
Ret 26 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si Y 0 Race incident 24
Ret 24 George Tanev Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si Y 0 Race incident 19
Ret 10 Sergio Hernández BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 0 Race incident 14
Ret 4 Jordi Gené SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 0 Electrical 6
DNS 9 Alessandro Zanardi BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320si 0 Did not start 25
DNS 3 Rickard Rydell SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 0 Did not start 23
DSQ 5 Tiago Monteiro SEAT Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 Disqualified 4
  • Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

  1. Meissner, Johan (17 March 2009). "Mehdi Bennani joins Exagon at Marrakech". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  2. English, Steven (10 April 2009). "Proteam to run third car in Morocco". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  3. Meissner, Johan (30 April 2009). "Tom Boardman skips Marrakech". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  4. Meissner, Johan (1 May 2009). "Muller ahead of Menu at Marrakech". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  5. English, Steven (2 May 2009). "SEAT dominates Marrakech practice". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  6. http://www.fiawtcc.com/2009/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.3.200952223750.pdf Archived 2010-10-31 at the Wayback Machine Qualifying Report
  7. Casillo, Pietro (3 May 2009). "SEAT back on top in the warm up". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  8. http://www.fiawtcc.com/2009/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.3.200953195029.pdf Archived 2010-10-31 at the Wayback Machine Race Report
World Touring Car Championship
Previous race:
2009 FIA WTCC Race of Mexico
2009 World Touring Car Championship season Next race:
2009 FIA WTCC Race of France
Previous race:
none
FIA WTCC Race of Morocco Next race:
2010 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco
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