Citroën’s José María López says that qualifying for this weekend’s World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races in Marrakech will have “an essential role” due to the difficult of overtaking on a street circuit.
The reigning champion and current points leader believes that qualifying has an extra important role in Morocco this weekend, and predicts a close tussle for pole position on Saturday.
“As is often the case, qualifying will play an essential role in shaping the weekend’s events,” said the Argentine. “There will only be a few hundredths of a second between the drivers competing for pole position.
“As our cars are identical, it’s very difficult to overtake your teammates in normal circumstances. More than at any other circuit, getting a good place on the grid will go a long way towards determining the result of race one. In the second race, with the reverse grid, we’ll just have to improvise!”
Qualifying at the Circuit Moulay El Hassan in 2014 was decided by just 0.115 seconds, with the Argentine getting his season off to the perfect start by beating team-mates Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller to pole.
Citroën scored almost the same results in the first meeting of 2015 as they did on their WTCC début in 2014, with both López and Loeb taking a win, and the marque scoring a 1-2-3 result in the first race of the season.