Marrakesh WTCR: Tarquini doubles up with Race 3 win

The Italian resisted a challenge from YMR's Thed Bjork for the majority of the race before being allowed a clear run to the finish when Bjork handed second to his teammate Yvan Muller late on.

As Tarquini leapt away from pole position at the start of the race, Muller chopped over to the left-hand side of the grid to block off the second BRC Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz.

That delayed both drivers, with Michelisz running into the back of Muller's Hyundai, and allowed Bjork to sweep around the outside into second, while Yann Ehrlacher also got past Michelisz for fourth in his Honda.

As he had done in Saturday's first race, Tarquini managed a gap of a less than a second back to Bjork as the top two escaped from Muller in the first part of the race - with the Frenchman instead forced to focus on keeping nephew Ehrlacher behind.

A first safety car was deployed at the end of lap eight to allow marshals to recover the stricken Comtoyou Audi of Frederic Vervisch, who ended up in the run-off area at Turn 7 and narrowly avoided wiping out Pepe Oriola when his brakes appeared to fail.

The race resumed two laps later but was neutralised again when Aurelien Panis hit the wall exiting Turn 6, having made contact with the Peugeot of Mato Homola as the pair came out of the Turn 4/5 chicane.

That safety car was brought in at the end of lap 17 of the new 23-lap distance, and 2017 WTCC champion Bjork stayed with Tarquini on the restart as Muller again left a gap between himself and the sister YMR car.

But after a couple more laps following Tarquini, Bjork ended his challenge for the lead when he ceded second to Muller on lap 19 of 23, slotting back in between his teammate and Ehrlacher.

That left Tarquini with a comfortable run to the flag, winning by 2.524 seconds from Muller as Bjork beat Ehrlacher to the final podium spot.

Michelisz reported an oil temperature issue in his gearbox before the first safety car period but was told to continue by his BRC team, and resisted a challenge from the two Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagens of Mehdi Bennani and Rob Huff to claim fifth.

James Thompson grabbed another points finish in his Munnich Motorsport Honda in eighth, ahead of the leading Audi of race two winner Jean-Karl Vernay.

Pepe Oriola scored the final point after beating teammate John Filippi in the second Campos Racing Cupra and Tom Coronel's Boutsen Ginion Honda.

Three-time British Touring Car champion Gordon Shedden was classified 18th and four laps down after visiting the pits.

Race Results:

cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	30	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	-
2	48	Yvan Muller	Hyundai	2.524
3	11	Thed Björk	Hyundai	2.922
4	68	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	4.645
5	5	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	5.937
6	25	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	6.631
7	12	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	8.121
8	15	James Thompson	Honda	9.932
9	69	Jean Karl Vernay	Audi	10.743
10	74	Pepe Oriola	Seat	13.74
11	27	John Filippi	Seat	14.599
12	9	Tom Coronel	Honda	14.838
13	70	Mato Homola	Peugeot	16.011
14	86	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	16.475
15	8	Norbert Nagy	Seat	18.464
16	21	Aurelien Panis	Audi	19.526
17	63	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	20.205
	52	Gordon Shedden	Audi	4 laps
	88	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	6 laps
	23	Nathanaël Berthon	Audi	8 laps
	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	10 laps
	66	Zsolt David Szabo	Seat	15 laps
	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	17 laps
	7	Aurélien Comte	Peugeot	23 laps