The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco was the third round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the third running of the FIA WTCC Race of Morocco. It was held on 15 April 2012 at Marrakech Street Circuit in Marrakesh, Morocco. Both races were won by Chevrolet with Alain Menu winning race one and Yvan Muller winning race two.

Background After Valencia it was Chevrolet driver Yvan Muller who was leading the championship, 27 points clear of his nearest rival Menu who was three points clear of ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel. Pepe Oriola was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Having made his WTCC debut at Valencia, Fernando Monje would not return to race at Marrakesh in preparation for his return to the European Touring Car Cup at the Slovakiaring. Gábor Wéber would also miss the event due to financial concerns, leaving Norbert Michelisz as the sole driver for Zengő Motorsport.

Report

Free Practice Lukoil Racing Team's Gabriele Tarquini was fastest in the first free practice session ahead of the Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Robert Huff. Team AON's Tom Chilton was a surprise fourth fastest, backing up his performance from Fridays test session. Franz Engstler was the fastest of the BMWs.

In the second session it was Menu was topped the times, his teammates Muller and Huff were second and third once again. Tarquini was the fastest SEAT in fourth ahead of Oriola and the Ford Focus of Chilton in sixth.

Qualifying Menu continued his pace from the second free practice session to take pole position by 0.028s ahead of Huff. Muller and Coronel set benchmark times early on in Q2 but they had to settle for fourth and third respectively. Tiago Monteiro was tenth and looked to take pole position for race two. After Tarquini was removed from qualifying for running an underweight car, James Nash moved up to take pole position for race two.

Warm-Up Yvan Muller was fastest in the Sunday morning warm up session with pole sitter Menu in fourth.

Race One The Chevrolet trio of Menu, Huff and Muller led away from the start while behind them, Oriola made a great getaway and got ahead of Coronel for fourth. Local driver Mehdi Bennani and James Nash collided at the first turn, forcing both to retire. There was a brief scare for Alex MacDowall when he missed the braking point at turn 5 in his bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze and collected the BMW of Coronel, both escaped any series damage and continued. The safety car was deployed while the stricken Ford of Nash was recovered with the race resuming on lap three. Isaac Tutumlu crashed his Proteam Racing into the wall at turn 4 and retired. On lap 5, Monteiro retired with gearbox problems in his SUNRED León. Menu led a Chevrolet 1-2-3 with Oriola the Yokohama Trophy winner in fourth. Chilton scored Ford's maiden points in the WTCC with a seventh-place finish.

Race Two Nash led away from pole position while Coronel jumped up from eighth on the grid to third behind Engstler at the first corner. Chilton collected the rear bumper of Monteiro and dropped back down the field. Nash had to defend well from the BMW of Engstler until the German was overtaken by the Chevrolets of Muller and Huff on lap 4. On the following lap the two leading Chevrolets demoted Nash to third, one lap further on Menu also overtook the 2011 British Touring Car Championship Independents' Champion to secure third. Nash succumbed to attacks from Coronel and Stefano D'Aste on lap 9, while his teammate Chilton retired with turbo problems. At the finish, Muller led another Chevrolet 1-2-3 in reverse of the order they finished race one, D'Aste was the winning independent in fourth place and pole sitter Nash eventually finished sixth. After the race, the stewards issued bamboo-engineering driver Pasquale di Sabatino with a 30-second penalty for repeatedly cutting the chicanes, this dropped him from 12th to 15th in the classification.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 Points 1 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:43.753 1:43.901 5 2 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:44.973 1:43.929 4 3 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 1:45.000 1:43.968 3 4 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:44.482 1:44.201 2 5 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCCY 1:44.919 1:44.498 1 6 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 1:45.281 1:44.544 7 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:44.638 1:44.681 8 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 1:45.125 1:44.822 9 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SR León 1.6T 1:44.966 1:44.870 10 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:45.137 1:44.982 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 1:45.178 1:51.464 12 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 1:45.378 DSQ 13 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TCY 1:45.495 DNQ 14 12 Pasquale di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 1:45.692 DNQ 15 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 1:45.707 DNQ 16 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCCY 1:45.834 DNQ 17 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 1:45.965 DNQ 18 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TCY 1:46.041 DNQ 19 22 Tom Boardman Special Tuning Racing SEAT León TDiY 1:46.562 DNQ 20 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 1:47.294 DNQ 21 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SR León 1.6TY 1:47.872 DNQ 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCCY 2:49.620 DNQ Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 22.28.931 1 25 2 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 +1.074 2 18 3 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 +1.554 4 15 4 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCCY 12 +2.268 5 12 5 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 12 +5.713 11 10 6 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 12 +8.075 8 8 7 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 12 +9.290 7 6 8 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 12 +16.069 3 4 9 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 12 +17.696 13 2 10 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCCY 12 +19.284 16 1 11 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 12 +26.413 12 12 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 12 +38.647 6 13 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SR León 1.6T Y 12 +44.139 20 14 22 Tom Boardman Special Tuning Racing SEAT León TDiY 12 +48.598 18 15 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 12 +50.097 21 16 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCCY 12 +50.377 22 17 12 Pasquale di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 11 +1 Lap 14 NC 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SR León 1.6T 7 +5 Laps 9 Ret 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 6 Engine 17 Ret 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 2 Collision 19 Ret 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 2 Collision 15 Ret 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 0 Collision 10 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 19:36.836 7 25 2 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 +0.381 9 18 3 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 +0.970 10 15 4 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 11 +2.153 8 12 5 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 11 +2.641 11 10 6 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 11 +5.052 1 8 7 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCCY 11 +5.589 6 6 8 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 11 +5.610 3 4 9 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SR León 1.6T 11 +7.374 2 2 10 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCCY 11 +12.861 15 1 11 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCCY 11 +13.587 21 12 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 11 +18.629 20 13 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 11 +29.173 16 14 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SR León 1.6T Y 11 +31.619 19 15 12 Pasquale di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 11 +44.273 14 16 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 8 +3 Laps 4 Ret 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 5 Suspension 13 Ret 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 2 Driveshaft 17 Ret 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 0 Driveshaft 5 Ret 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 0 Suspension 12 DNS 22 Tom Boardman Special Tuning Racing SEAT León TDiY 0 Withdrew DNS 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 0 Collision damage 18 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 130 2 Alain Menu 106 1 3 Robert Huff 97 1 4 Tom Coronel 77 1 5 Stefano D'Aste 45

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Pepe Oriola 51 2 Stefano D'Aste 47 1 3 Franz Engstler 37 1 4 Norbert Michelisz 32 5 Alex MacDowall 19

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 268 2 BMW Customer Racing Teams 161 3 SEAT Racing Technology 144

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

References

External links