It’s ‘catch me if you can time’ in Marrakech with José María López continuing to set the pace by topping the Eurodatacar WTCC Race of Morocco Free Practice 2 times.
Driving a Citroën C-Elysée WTCC, the reigning world champion was under the lap record he set last season with a time of 1m43.540s. French team-mate Sébastien Loeb was also inside López’s 1m43.704s benchmark in second, 0.106s slower than the Argentine, with Yvan Muller third, Ma Qing Hua fourth and Tiago Monteiro leading the Honda runners in fifth.
Home hero Mehdi Bennani was sixth quickest with Toms Chilton and Coronel seventh and eighth respectively in their ROAL Motorsport Chevrolets. Rob Huff was 11th quickest for LADA but his crash into tyre barriers resulted in the 30-minute session being stopped slightly ahead of schedule.
Free Practice 2 was in preparation for Qualifying from 12h30 local time. Circuit Moulay El Hassan, a 4.545-kilometre street track, hosts rounds three and four of the 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship on Sunday. Both 14-lap races will be shown live on television around the world.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:43.540 |
| 2 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:43.646 |
| 3 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:43.701 |
| 4 | Ma Qing Hua | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1:43.825 |
| 5 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:44.189 |
| 6 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | 1:44.272 |
| 7 | Tom Chilton | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:44.353 |
| 8 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:44.399 |
| 9 | Gabriele Tarquini | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 1:44.465 |
| 10 | Hugo Valente | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1:44.594 |
| 11 | Robert Huff | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:44.749 |
| 12 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo Motorsport | Honda | 1:45.069 |
| 13 | Dusan Borkovic | Proteam Racing | Honda | 1:45.145 |
| 14 | Stefano D’Aste | Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1:45.626 |
| 15 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1:45.959 |
| 16 | James Thompson | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:46.642 |
| 17 | Grégoire Demoustier | Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet | 1:46.746 |
| 18 | Mikhail Kozlvskiy | LADA Sport Rosneft | Lada | 1:46.916 |