Rob Huff leads the way in Marrakech testing

Honda’s Rob Huff set the pace in Friday testing for the World Touring Car Championship at the new Marrakech circuit, ahead of Citroën’s José María López and fellow Honda racer Norbert Michelisz.

On a heavily revised circuit, Huff was quickest in Civic. His nearest rival López was just two-tenths slower over the new three kilometre circuit.

The new Marrakech asphalt, formerly known as “Monza without the runoffs” has proved to be controversial in its new guise with shorter straights and a narrower track.

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Nevertheless the changes mean that times, not only in this test session but in practice and qualifying will be very close as shown by Honda’s Michelisz, whose time was just over one-hundredth of a second slower than Lopez in the dominant Citroën C-Elysée.

Unsurprisingly, due to the nature of the new circuit, most of the quickest times were at the end of the session with pace setters Huff, Lopez and Michelisz setting their quickest times on their 14^th, 13^th and 15^th respective laps.

Looking broadly at the timesheet it will be intriguing to note the strong presence of Honda, three of whom ended the session in the top five, doing well against the Citroëns of López and Muller who controlled the WTCC since the French outfit joined the series in 2014.

Meanwhile, further back the LADAs of Gabriele Tarquini and Nicky Catsburg will be hoping to utilise the proximity of lap times to improve what has so far been a disappointing season for the improving Lada Vesta.

Session results

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	12		Rob HUFF		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	16	1:22.451	0.000
2	37		José María LÓPEZ		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	1:22.667	0.216
3	5		Norbert MICHELISZ		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	17	1:22.678	0.227
4	18		Tiago MONTEIRO		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	18	1:23.050	0.599
5	68		Yvan MULLER		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	14	1:23.548	1.097
6	2		Gabriele TARQUINI		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	15	1:23.918	1.467
7	10		Nicky CATSBURG		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	17	1:23.946	1.495
8	25	T	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	16	1:23.995	1.544
9	15	T	James THOMPSON		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	17	1:24.200	1.749
10	7		Hugo VALENTE		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	16	1:24.209	1.758
11	3	T	Tom CHILTON		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	17	1:24.324	1.873
12	9	T	Tom CORONEL		ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	16	1:24.353	1.902
13	62		Thed BJÖRK		Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo S60 WTCC	16	1:24.594	2.143
14	61		Fredrik EKBLOM		Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo S60 WTCC	16	1:24.972	2.521
15	27	T	John FILIPPI		Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	15	1:26.695	4.244
16	11	T	Grégoire DEMOUSTIER		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	16	1:27.109	4.658
17	55	T	Ferenc FICZA		Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	17	1:27.123	4.672