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Qualifying report

Marrakesh WTCC: Monteiro grabs first pole of new season

Honda’s Tiago Monteiro took pole position for the first race of the 2017 WTCC season in Marrakesh, beating the Volvo of Nestor Girolami by two tenths of a second.

Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC

Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC

FIA WTCC

Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Nestor Girolami, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Tom Coronel, Roal Motorsport, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Mehdi Bennani, Sébastien Loeb Racing, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Nestor Girolami, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Esteban Guerrieri, Campos Racing, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC

The Portuguese driver had his work cut out for him in the one-lap shootout, despite having led the way in Q2, setting the best time of the weekend yet.

Girolami produced a time of 1m22.031s on his one-lap run, and was the only one of the Volvo contingent to make it into the top five and the one-lap shootout.

Honda’s Norbert Michelisz was after him on track, but unable to improve on Girolami’s time, missing out by just under a tenth of a second.

Monteiro was just behind Girolami’s stunning first sector time, but clawed it back in sectors two and three to set a 1m21.792s, and score his first pole since his home race last year.

Munnich's Rob Huff was fourth in the best of the Citroens, half a second slower than Monteiro, with Mehdi Bennani's Sebastien Loeb Racing-run Citroen the slowest of those in the top-five shootout.

The second part of qualifying was red-flagged when Volvo's Nicky Catsburg crashed at Turn 11, taking no major damage but blocking the track.

The Dutchman was able to rejoin the session once his car was returned to the garage, but would only be sixth-fastest, just missing out on a Q3 spot.

When the session restarted, RC Lada driver Yann Ehrlacher made a similar error to Catsburg at the same turn, but avoided hitting the barriers.

Thed Bjork (Volvo) would qualify in seventh ahead of Tom Chilton (Citroen), while a late improvement for the third Honda of Ryo Michigami saw the Japanese driver climb to ninth.

Michigami will start ahead of Ehrlacher on the fifth row for the main race, but the French newcomer is set to start the opening race from pole position courtesy of the top 10 reversed grid.

Just missing out on top 10 spots were Chevrolet pair Esteban Guerrieri and Tom Coronel, while Daniel Nagy (Honda), John Filippi (Citroen) and rookie Aurelien Panis (Honda) were eliminated in Q1.

Qualifying results:

Pos.DriverCarTimeGap
1 portugal Tiago Monteiro  Honda 1'21.792  
2 argentina Nestor Girolami  Volvo 1'22.031 0.239
3 hungary Norbert Michelisz  Honda 1'22.097 0.305
4 united_kingdom Rob Huff  Citroen 1'22.309 0.517
5 morocco Mehdi Bennani  Citroen 1'22.412 0.620
Q3 cut-off: 1'22.568
6 netherlands Nicky Catsburg  Volvo 1'22.692 0.870 (to best in Q2)
7 sweden Thed Björk  Volvo 1'22.797 0.975
8 united_kingdom Tom Chilton  Citroen 1'22.813 0.991
9 japan Ryo Michigami  Honda 1'23.034 1.212
10 france Yann Ehrlacher  LADA 1'23.063 1.241
11 argentina Esteban Guerrieri  Chevrolet 1'23.228 1.406
12 netherlands Tom Coronel  Chevrolet 1'23.479 1.657
Q2 cut-off: 1'23.628
13 hungary Daniel Nagy  Honda 1'23.799 1.638 (to best in Q1)
14 france John Filippi  Citroën 1'24.043 1.882
15 france Aurelien Panis  Honda 1'24.399 2.238

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

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