Yvan Muller and his RML Chevrolet Cruze arrive at Marrakech as the duo to beat. The three times world champion was especially impressive at Monza, opening the season with a couple of dominant victories. And on the long straights of Morocco’s street circuit, Muller will try to encore his Italian performance.
He may be threatened by the other Chevrolet drivers: Tom Chilton in RML’s sister car, the bamboo-engineering duo of Alex MacDowall and James Nash (leader of the Yokohama Trophy) and Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjær.
As for the rest of the field, the SEAT León cars are expected to be competitive, especially those of Rob Huff, Marc Basseng (both Münnich Motorsport) and Pepe Oriola (Tuenti Racing Team).
The LADA Granta – that was forced to miss the Italian races – remains a question mark, while the lap times at Monza said that the Honda Civic and BMW 320 TC machineries still need to improve in terms of pure performance.
However, at Marrakech braking and handling in the chicanes are as important as the top speed and drivers like Gabriele Tarquini and Tom Coronel may make the difference. As well as the 40 extra kilos that make the Chevrolet the heviest cars.