Ma Qing Hua made it two wins from two for Cyan Racing in the FIA TCR World Tour races in Morocco, scoring a lights-to-flag win ahead of GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri.
Ma had scored the reverse-grid pole position in Friday’s qualifying session, and at the start the Lynk & Co driver withstood pressure from the Honda of Guerrieri going into the first corner.
Behind the Chinese driver, there was contact between several title contenders. Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher started from tenth, directly behind BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz on the grid.
Heading into Turn 1, the two made contact, Ehrlacher getting into the back of Michelisz’s Hyundai, which caused him to slide into team-mate Néstor Girolami and damage his car.
Although Michelisz could continue, he had no front bumper on his ailed Elantra, and quickly dropped down the order.
Ehrlacher managed a dozen laps after this, but the Frenchman too had to pit with damage on his Lynk & Co, which ended his day early.
As the order settled down, the leading trio gradually broke apart, whilst the driver in fourth early on, Julien Piguet, slowed on lap four with an issue on his Audi.
That handed fourth to Girolami, who headed up Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi, BRC team-mate Mikel Azcona and GOAT racing’s Marco Butti early on.
The real mover in the early stages was Moroccan Sami Taoufik, who hauled his Volcano Motorsport Audi from 13th on the grid up to eighth by lap six, including a double pass on Ehrlacher and Michelisz on the third tour.
Taoufik got by Butti for seventh on lap 11, and then pressured Azcona ahead of him for much of the mid stage of the race, who in turn had been piling the pressure on Filippi ahead for fifth.
On lap 31, five laps from the finish, Azcona slowed with a problem and dived into the pits, his mechanics changing the left-rear tyre on his car.
That promoted Taoufik to sixth, much to the delight of the local fans.
At the front though it was Ma who claimed victory by over two seconds from Guerrieri, as GOAT Racing’s Dušan Borković completed the podium for his first rostrum visit in World Touring Cars for ten years.
Filippi was fourth as the leading Audi driver, after passing Girolami on the run to the line in a bizarre move as Girolami slowed exiting the corner.
Girolami was nonetheless classified in fifth, ahead of Taoufik in sixth. Butti was seventh, ahead of Santiago Urrutia in eighth, having swapped places back with Thed Björk, who was ninth, on the final lap.
Home hero Mehdi Bennani completed the top ten in the only CUPRA in the race.
Michelisz continues to lead the drivers’ standings with 97 points, ahead of Urrutia (86), Ehrlacher (82), Girolami (82) and Guerrieri (77).
The next round takes place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the USA on 7 – 8 June.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 31:00.756 | 50.613 | 1 | |
| 2 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 36 | 2.094 | 51.114 | 2 | |
| 3 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 36 | 2.814 | 51.087 | 3 | |
| 4 | 127 |  |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 5.949 | 51.124 | 6 | |
| 5 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 36 | 6.400 | 51.178 | 7 | |
| 6 | 212 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 7.894 | 50.917 | 13 | |
| 7 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 36 | 9.583 | 50.987 | 15 | |
| 8 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 14.678 | 51.418 | 9 | |
| 9 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 15.561 | 51.101 | 11 | |
| 10 | 125 | |
Mehdi BENNANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 36 | 26.077 | 51.262 | 12 | |
| 11 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 36 | 41.541 | 51.797 | 8 | |
| 12 | 41 |  |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 36 | 43.482 | 51.831 | 14 | |
| 13 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 35 | + 1 LAP | 51.142 | 5 | |
| R | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | DNF | 51.566 | 10 | |
| R | 30 | |
Julien PIGUET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | DNF | 51.105 | 4 |