Alain Menu secured his second victory of the season and the fifth in five races for the Chevrolet team in the opening race of the day in Morocco.
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Rob Huff and Yvan Muller completed the top three while Spaniard Pepe Oriola finished fourth overall and secured his third Yokohama Independents’ trophy victory of the season.
Off the rolling start, Menu and Huff held station while third place starter Tom Coronel dropped back down the order as Muller and Oriola gained positions.
After just one corner, the incidents started as Franz Engstler spun Team Aon’s James Nash into the wall and local hero Mehdi Bennani in the Proteam Racing BMW couldn’t avoid the Ford Focus. Nash was out on the spot while Bennani recovered to the pits to retire.
Further around the lap, ROAL Motorsport’s Coronel and the bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruze of Alex MacDowall had a coming together. Dutchman Coronel lost control under braking for the second chicane and was contacted by MacDowall, who also locked up under braking.
Due to the position of the #23 Ford Focus, the Safety Car was deployed and once the car had been recovered, Menu set about opening up an advantage over his Chevrolet team-mates.
Further back, the main action was coming from the second Ford Focus of Tom Chilton. He spent the opening laps on the tail of Stefano D’Aste and Pepe Oriola – plus half of the lap on two wheels – but Chilton started to drop down the order as the race moved towards its conclusion.
After his mishap on the opening lap, Coronel was on a recovery drive and he took ninth from Norbert Michelisz and this became eighth on the final lap as Gabriele Tarquini slowed and dropped out of the points.
Up at the front, the trio of Chevrolet’s led to the flag and secured a one, two, three finish but with Oriola right on their tail.
D’Aste finished fifth while the rest of the top ten was completed by Engstler, Chilton, Coronel, Michelisz and O’Young. Engstler will be investigated for the incident with Nash on the opening lap.
For Chilton, it marks his and the teams’ first points’ finish since they graduated into the series for the 2012 campaign and the first for the blue oval in the WTCC.
Muller has seen his Championship advantage reduced by Menu ahead of round six, while in the Yokohama Independents’; Oriola has opened up a seven point advantage over D’Aste in second.