The Honda Civic Type R heads the race for the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup for Teams after a fantastic Sunday for ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport on the streets of Marrakech.
Drivers Esteban Guerrieri and Nestor Girolami backed up yesterday’s win and third place with a pair of strong finishes to ensure that the German team holds a 12-point lead in the teams’ title race with the first three of 30 races completed.
Esteban, who kicked off the season with an impressive victory, twice finished fourth in a pair of gruelling races to leave himself second in the Drivers’ points table; just five away from the series lead.
Team-mate and fellow Argentinian ‘Bebu’ dug deep after qualifying 11th and came home 10th and sixth in the two races on the semi-permanent Circuit Moulay el Hassan. He’s fourth in the points.
KCMG were the best-performing Honda customer team in qualifying as Tiago Monteiro capped his comeback weekend by reaching the Q3 pole-position shoot-out in qualifying and qualifying fourth in an intensely-fought session.
Starting seventh on the partially-reversed Race Two grid, the Portuguese was boxed in at the start and dropped to ninth, but recovered to eighth by the chequered flag.
A strong start in Race Three from the second row soon turned sour when he was caught in the middle of a three-car battle for position at Turn Seven on the opening lap and had no chance to avoid the crashed Yann Ehrlacher as the Frenchman’s car rebounded off the tyres and into his path; the damage ending his race on the spot.
Team-mate Attila Tassi produced the lap of the weekend to climb from 21st on the Race-Three grid to 14th after the lights went out in Race Three. The Hungarian teenager continued his rapid progress to take a career-best 11th place, having finished 20th earlier in the day.
KCMG are eighth in the Teams’ standings with Tiago and Attila ninth and 19th in the Drivers’ points ahead of the latter’s home event at the Hungaroring in three weeks’ time.
Esteban Guerrieri 86
“It’s been a very positive day for me. Qualifying was a little disappointing and I picked up some damage to my splitter that compromised the performance, but from seventh in qualifying, two fourth places are very pleasing and mean big points for both myself and the team. With the win yesterday, this is the highest-scoring weekend of my WTCR career. I targeted 33 points and have 56 so that’s very good. Honestly, the team have simply done an amazing job and the Civic Type R TCR has been fast in every session. This is a great weekend for everyone.”
– ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Nestor Girolami 29
“It’s such an awesome weekend. Today wasn’t quite as good as yesterday, but I’m fourth in the championship and we’re leading the Teams’ points so it couldn’t have gone much better. Having Esteban as my team-mate is very positive because we are pushing each other to take the level higher and higher, and at the same time the team is doing the same, because WTCR is now at a higher level of drivers and teams than almost any touring car championship has been before. The guys at ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport and JAS made a huge effort to get this and I’ve gone from being 1.5 seconds off the pace in first practice, to right on the money today in Q1. We all leave here very happy.”
– ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Tiago Monteiro 18
“I’m pleased with the speed of the Honda this weekend and with my own performance, because I’ve proved that I’m completely back to normal and that feels really good. It’s a shame that I lost my first set of new tyres in qualifying because of a yellow flag, which meant I had to use an extra set in Q1 and so had to do Q3 on old tyres, but fourth was still very good. I didn’t take any risks in Race Two because I knew I had a good chance of a Race Three podium, but the first lap was very scrappy and I was hit five or six times and got a little damage. Two other cars were either side of me at Turn Seven and it was too tight, so that was it; race over. I’m feeling good for Hungary.”
– KCMG
Attila Tassi 19
“It feels great to get my first WTCR points on my first weekend as a full-time driver. Twenty-first to 14th in one lap and then finishing 11th; very good. I picked up some splitter damage on the first lap, but it didn’t affect my race and I could make some good progress. This is my first time in Marrakech and it was quite a tough weekend learning the track and driving in what is the highest-level competition I’ve ever experienced, but we have finished well and I will take this into the Hungaroring, where we should do better.”
– KCMG
Dominik Greiner
Team Manager
“This has been a very good weekend for the team and I’m very happy. As a full unit, this group of guys has only really been together for three weeks, so to come off the first weekend of the season leading the Teams’ Championship, with six top-10 finishes out of six, and two podiums, is really something very special. This is an extremely good position to build on and we will now go to Hungary with high expectations.”
– ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Dario d’Esposito
Team Principal
“The results were not what we expected after a very good qualifying, but that’s racing. It’s fantastic to see Tiago back as the same driver we knew before his injuries and his qualifying speed was excellent. He stayed cautious in Race Two, but in Race Three he was a victim when three wouldn’t go into one. When you see 25 cars within a second in Q1, you see how tough the competition is here so for Attila to miss Q2 by only 0.2s was not bad. He made an excellent start to Race Three, avoided the chaos and finished 11th, which is a very good result at a new track for him.”
– KCMG
Mads Fischer
TCR Project Leader, JAS Motorsport
“One round down and the Civic Type R TCR has helped ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport to lead the Teams’ points, which is fantastic. They have done a fantastic job this weekend and Esteban and Bebu have been very consistent. KCMG, who have not been here before in Marrakech, have also been very strong and were unfortunate not to get the results they deserved after qualifying. I must also congratulate WSC for creating a Balance of Performance that has put most of the brands here very close together on laptime, and I look forward to that continuing in Hungary.”
– JAS Motorsport