Marrakesh WTCR: Vervisch beats Muller to pole

Vervisch topped the times in the second part of qualifying, then stayed on top in the pole position shootout segment to secure first on the grid for Sunday's third race of the weekend and his first WTCR pole.

The Comtoyou driver chose to run second in the Q3 order by dint of leading the times in Q2 - as part of new WTCR qualifying rules for 2019 - and recorded a 1m24.721s lap of the Moulay El Hassan circuit.

That time was 0.131 seconds slower than the Belgian had managed in the second part of qualifying, but it was still enough to hand him pole by more than three tenths of a second.

Muller was the first man behind Vervisch in the order to attempt to beat that lap, but could not improve on any of the benchmark sector times and ended up setting a 1m25.091s.

Teammate Thed Bjork was a further tenth behind in the second Cyan Lynk & Co 03 and will start race three from third, while Tiago Monteiro - who ran last in the shootout - was fourth in the lead Honda Civic Type R.

In only his second WTCR qualifying session, Mikel Azcona was the only Cupra driver to progress from the opening segment and was then second fastest in Q2, before ending up slowest in the shootout.

He nevertheless earned a bonus point for qualifying fifth, to add to the point he secured in Saturday's opening race after being demoted from a ninth-place finish for hitting Norbert Michelisz.

Yann Ehrlacher was fastest of those who missed out on a spot in Q2, falling 0.064s short of his uncle Yvan Muller's time in his Lynk & Co 03 and ending up sixth.

Saturday race winner Esteban Guerrieri could not repeat his pole position form of Saturday and was seventh, leaping ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay's WRT Audi RS3 LMS to take seventh with his final lap after reporting damage to his splitter in Q2.

Neither of the BRC Racing Hyundai i30 Ns that made Q2 were able to challenge for a place in the pole position shootout, but Nicky Catsburg will start the reversed-grid race from pole after qualifying 10th.

He will share the front row for that race with reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini, who was 0.082s faster than his Dutch teammate in the second part of qualifying.

Nestor Girolami (Munnich Motorsport Honda) and the second WRT Audi of Gordon Shedden will start both races 11th and 12th.

A number of big names fell at the first hurdle in a particularly frantic first part of qualifying, in which 24 cars were covered by one second.

Ma Qing Hua was the first of those below the cut, missing out on a place in Q2 by 0.037 seconds.

While Tarquini and Catsburg made the second part of qualifying, fellow BRC drivers Augusto Farfus and Michelisz both missed out.

Andy Priaulx was another surprise casualty in the fourth Cyan Lynk & Co, a day after he started then finished his first World Touring Car race since 2010 in fifth.

The three-time world champion was 17th, two place ahead of compatriot Rob Huff - who was again fastest of the Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTIs.

Huff's teammates Mehdi Bennani, Johan Kristoffersson and Benajmin Leuchter will start both of Sunday's races 23rd, 24th and 25th respectively - ahead only of the Comtoyou Cupra of Aurelien Panis, who was unable to set a representative time in Q1.

Q3 results

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	3	1'24.721			126.244
2	100	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	3	1'25.091	0.370	0.370	125.696
3	11	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	3	1'25.224	0.503	0.133	125.499
4	18	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	3	1'25.593	0.872	0.369	124.958
5	96	Mikel Azcona	Cupra	3	1'25.639	0.918	0.046	124.891

Q2 results

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	3	1'24.590			126.440
2	96	Mikel Azcona	Cupra	5	1'24.826	0.236	0.236	126.088
3	18	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	3	1'24.833	0.243	0.007	126.078
4	11	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	6	1'24.834	0.244	0.001	126.076
5	100	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	7	1'24.855	0.265	0.021	126.045
6	68	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	6	1'24.919	0.329	0.064	125.950
7	86	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	8	1'24.930	0.340	0.011	125.934
8	69	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi	7	1'24.964	0.374	0.034	125.883
9	1	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	7	1'24.997	0.407	0.033	125.835
10	88	Nick Catsburg	Hyundai	8	1'25.079	0.489	0.082	125.713
11	29	Nestor Girolami	Honda	8	1'25.102	0.512	0.023	125.679
12	52	Gordon Shedden	Audi	7	1'25.292	0.702	0.190	125.399

Q1 results

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	11	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	14	1'24.820			126.097
2	96	Mikel Azcona	Cupra	10	1'24.857	0.037	0.037	126.042
3	69	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi	12	1'24.883	0.063	0.026	126.004
4	29	Nestor Girolami	Honda	14	1'24.889	0.069	0.006	125.995
5	18	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	13	1'24.972	0.152	0.083	125.872
6	68	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	12	1'25.049	0.229	0.077	125.758
7	86	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	9	1'25.057	0.237	0.008	125.746
8	88	Nick Catsburg	Hyundai	12	1'25.060	0.240	0.003	125.741
9	100	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	11	1'25.079	0.259	0.019	125.713
10	52	Gordon Shedden	Audi	16	1'25.108	0.288	0.029	125.670
11	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	10	1'25.151	0.331	0.043	125.607
12	1	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	14	1'25.198	0.378	0.047	125.538
13	55	Ma Qing Hua	Alfa Romeo	15	1'25.234	0.414	0.036	125.485
14	8	Augusto Farfus	Hyundai	14	1'25.270	0.450	0.036	125.432
15	5	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	14	1'25.328	0.508	0.058	125.346
16	50	Tom Coronel	Cupra	12	1'25.357	0.537	0.029	125.304
17	111	Andy Priaulx	Lynk & Co	15	1'25.397	0.577	0.040	125.245
18	37	Daniel Haglof	Cupra	11	1'25.438	0.618	0.041	125.185
19	12	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	12	1'25.463	0.643	0.025	125.148
20	31	Kevin Ceccon	Alfa Romeo	15	1'25.475	0.655	0.012	125.131
21	10	Niels Langeveld	Audi	11	1'25.486	0.666	0.011	125.115
22	9	Attila Tassi	Honda	15	1'25.588	0.768	0.102	124.966
23	25	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	14	1'25.679	0.859	0.091	124.833
24	14	Johan Kristoffersson	Volkswagen	13	1'25.693	0.873	0.014	124.812
25	33	Benjamin Leuchter	Volkswagen	14	1'26.111	1.291	0.418	124.207
26	21	Aurelien Panis	Cupra	10	1'28.211	3.391	2.100	121.250