It was tight at the top of the time sheets at the end of First Practice for the Moroccan Round of the WTCC with Honda’s Tiago Monteiro leading the way from team-mate Norbert Micheliz by just three-thousanths of a second with a time of 1m 22.081s.
Just four-tenths behind the Honda pair in third was, Citroën driver and championship leader José-María López, a driver heavily critical of the Circuit Moulay El Assan coming into this weekend. Behind them Rob Huff, who was the pace setter in the test session yesterday, finished fourth to López by only four hundredths of a second.
Rounding out the top five and the last of the group of drivers setting a lap in the 1m 22s was an impressive performance by Volvo’s Thed Björk showing pace in his Volvo S60.
It was tight from sixth down to fourteenth with just with just half a second covering LADA’s Nicky Catsburg in sixth down to Citroën’s Yvan Muller in 14th, surprisingly shy of the pace in his C-Elysée.
As elaborated on by Huff and LADA’s Hugo Valente in yesterday’s driver press conference as regards the driving surface some drivers were caught out as they started to push their WTCC machines further on the improving asphalt. Drivers such as John Filippi, Tom Coronnel, leaping his Chevrolet over the kerbs, Björk and even Huff were caught out under-braking for the tight turns of this re-designed circuit.
The session was not without problems for pace setter Monteiro, reporting over the radio, “I’m braking and on the kerbs I feel the under floor touching” meaning that while he topped the time sheets that there could still be more time to come from the Honda driver.
Second practice takes place at 12:30 CEST (11:30 BST).
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 16 | 1:22.081 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 1:22.084 | 0.003 | |
| 3 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 17 | 1:22.458 | 0.377 | |
| 4 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 1:22.461 | 0.380 | |
| 5 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 14 | 1:22.711 | 0.630 | |
| 6 | 10 | Nicky CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 16 | 1:23.084 | 1.003 | |
| 7 | 7 | Hugo VALENTE |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 15 | 1:23.158 | 1.077 | |
| 8 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 1:23.179 | 1.098 |
| 9 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 1:23.282 | 1.201 |
| 10 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 15 | 1:23.286 | 1.205 | |
| 11 | 61 | Fredrik EKBLOM | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 15 | 1:23.353 | 1.272 | |
| 12 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 13 | 1:23.428 | 1.347 |
| 13 | 15 | T | James THOMPSON | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 1:23.487 | 1.406 |
| 14 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 19 | 1:23.502 | 1.421 | |
| 15 | 11 | T | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 1:24.629 | 2.548 |
| 16 | 55 | T | Ferenc FICZA | |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 8 | 1:25.035 | 2.954 |
| 17 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 1:25.556 | 3.475 |