2014 WTCC Race of Morocco - Marrakech

[Bramzel]

That's Coronel out for Paul Ricard... Nice work Bennani!

[rich07]

Originally Posted by chunder

team orders after the first corner! girlfriends not allowed in the pit box

What do you mean about no girlfriends in the pits?? Gee that's quite odd

[tux]

Originally Posted by Bramzel

That's Coronel out for Paul Ricard... Nice work Bennani!

Yeah i mean its not like Coronel could have left some space or something he knew Bennani was there...

As for Citroen, good job on becoming champions.

[chunder]

Apparently Citroen ahve said no drivers birds in the pit, was said on telly.

Having seen many posts on other forums, believe me fella, if you think this is god you are wildly off the mark.

As people say, well done Citroen, the cheque is in the post, utter tosh

[MikeD]

Yeah baby ... Citroën and Loeb does it. Amazing job by Lopez in both races. Hope Muller will score at least 1 win at Paul Richard.

Great job by Valente and Campos. I think Valente is the real deal!

Honda looks pathetic, and let's hope they will be equally crappy when they team up with McCheat in F1 next year.

[Rubio]

1) Race 2 showed that it's still good old WTCC with overtakings, crashes and action though Race 1 was really dull. Great drive by Bennani!
2) I HATE Citroen. 1st race ant they already play team orders. Bulls**t. Hope at Paul Ricard other teams will give a hard time. It seems that Citroen has got best straight line speed, which won't be the crucial factor on the twisty circuit in France.
3) Everything is way too fresh. Especially the cars. Potential is there but we need time. I guess only at the Hungaroring we will see the true story
4) Please, never start again in Marrakech. NEVER. It's a good, unique track and I want it to be in the calendar but it's the worst possible place for a start round
5) Great driving from Valente
6) Crash was both Coronel and Bennani fault, IMO
7) Thank goodness they took off the huge driver names. I like the size on Chilton's, Borkovic's, Valente's cars

[Bramzel]

With the emotions of seeing Coronel in the wall gone I agree I have to revise my opinion. Bennani pushed too hard, Coronel should have given more space, both could have avoided the accident by backing off just a bit.

Citroën is dominating like Chevrolet did in their last official year, at least RML let their drivers fight eachother.
Honda has issues, they're seriously lacking speed.
The Cruzes show potential but also a lack of preparation time.
Campos surprised me; I expected mediocre results from a couple of pay-drivers, but both Valente a Borkovic performed well. Hat tip to them.

[Greem]

Coronel/Bennani was a 50/50 incident. Bennani could have backed off, Coronel could have come back to the right; both would have got through T1 unscathed. Neither did give up.

I'm afraid I think the Bennani penalty was unfair, as his choice was car(s) or wall. Coronel's choice was car or track, and he chose incorrectly.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Greem

Coronel/Bennani was a 50/50 incident. Bennani could have backed off, Coronel could have come back to the right; both would have got through T1 unscathed. Neither did give up.

I'm afraid I think the Bennani penalty was unfair, as his choice was car(s) or wall. Coronel's choice was car or track, and he chose incorrectly.

Worryingly, the blame culture in motorsport gets ever more worse. Isn't there such a thing as a racing incident anymore?

[vodka]

fuk team orders, fuk one team domination, fuk small grid Still... go Norby!

[crooky]

Was willing to give the WTCC another chance this weekend with all the interest of the new regulations, Loeb etc. But not sure I'll bother anymore...

[aneesh99]

If you ignore the Citroen's, the race wasn't that bad for me. The Bennani-Coronel situation was a racing incident at best, Coronel's fault at worst. Can't squeeze a driver into the wall, and it sounded like Bennani feathered the throttle.

Hopefully, Honda and Chevy can speed it up a bit to contend with Citroen a little more but I won't hold my breath. But why oh why did WTCC diverge so far from what they were doing?

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by aneesh99

If you ignore the Citroen's, the race wasn't that bad for me. The Bennani-Coronel situation was a racing incident at best, Coronel's fault at worst. Can't squeeze a driver into the wall, and it sounded like Bennani feathered the throttle.

Hopefully, Honda and Chevy can speed it up a bit to contend with Citroen a little more but I won't hold my breath. But why oh why did WTCC diverge so far from what they were doing?

this is how the WTCC should have been, real touring cars, real racing , big grids lots of action, no one sided domince by one car/team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEHGE6Ocy3E

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED ??? WHY IS SUCH A MESS TODAY ?? it's an unwatchable farcial s***

[Rubio]

I think we should give the championship a little more time. It was only the first race (and where, at Marrakech!!), and we are in the situation when one team tested for 1 year, 1 team for 1 month, 3 indies for 1 week and 1 team for 1 day. Of course, the result is obvious. I expected this. I just didn't expect Citroen to play into team tactics. Hope there is no target to make Loeb a champion this year...

Don't forget, 2007 started with same BMW domination, and do I have to remind the SEAT train in Curitiba in 2009? The competition will be better. The question is only when. We shouldn't compare it with Chevy domination, Chevrolet was the only factory team at that time and now we have Honda and good drivers at Lada

[porsche962fan]

fact is in 2006 it was a very good championship all around and now it's just a total mess with ugly cars that look like those idiotic ricers with their ridiculos bodykit which seems a HAZARD cos it can easly come off

and you noticed most privateers are gone cos the costs went up the roof , championship started to downgrade once the Leon TDI came on the scene and this TC1 are just a big meh

[Rubio]

In fact, Citroen and Lada are ugly (and Citroen has the worst livery in the WTCC history probably), but the Honda and Chevrolet are sweet. Just take off that big rear wing and they'll look even better

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by Rubio

but the Honda and Chevrolet are sweet. Just take off that big rear wing and they'll look even better

those side skirts and the idiotic front bumper need to go to, in essence back to normal S2000

I really don't understand this organizers at all, most championships scream to cut costs (even F1) but now aero grip plays a big part instead of just mechanical

so builders now have to invest large amount of money in wind tunnel testing for this bits

it's a complete and utter "oxymoron" contradiction/paradox

at least with NGTC rules the rear wing is standard so no money invested there and it isn't oversized either

[Metzo]

Originally Posted by Rubio

1) Race 2 showed that it's still good old WTCC with overtakings, crashes and action though Race 1 was really dull. Great drive by Bennani!
2) I HATE Citroen. 1st race ant they already play team orders. Bulls**t. Hope at Paul Ricard other teams will give a hard time. It seems that Citroen has got best straight line speed, which won't be the crucial factor on the twisty circuit in France.
3) Everything is way too fresh. Especially the cars. Potential is there but we need time. I guess only at the Hungaroring we will see the true story
4) Please, never start again in Marrakech. NEVER. It's a good, unique track and I want it to be in the calendar but it's the worst possible place for a start round
5) Great driving from Valente
6) Crash was both Coronel and Bennani fault, IMO
7) Thank goodness they took off the huge driver names. I like the size on Chilton's, Borkovic's, Valente's cars

i agree with all

[I Rosputnik]

*Sigh*

We've swapped one team for another. (And this bunch won't let their drivers even race.)

[Rubio]

When we had previous rules people were moaning that the cars are awful, boring, simple. Now people complain that there is aero, bigger wing and so on. It's a world championship after all, so basically they really needed to make cars more aggressive. Thankfully, the aero didn't seriously hurt racing, as we've seen in race 2 that it's possible to overtake.

One last word of critics from me. I hope someone from WTCC organization reads this topic. Please, change the points table on the graphics - showing minus points looks very very stupid and it seriously hurts the perception. Just do it like it was last year, with difference shown in a separate column. No one whom I've spoken to liked this innovation

[Metzo]

Originally Posted by Rubio

When we had previous rules people were moaning that the cars are awful, boring, simple. Now people complain that there is aero, bigger wing and so on.

some people will always look for something to moan about

[JohannD]

Originally Posted by Greem

Coronel/Bennani was a 50/50 incident. Bennani could have backed off, Coronel could have come back to the right; both would have got through T1 unscathed. Neither did give up.

I'm afraid I think the Bennani penalty was unfair, as his choice was car(s) or wall. Coronel's choice was car or track, and he chose incorrectly.

Video clearly shows Bennani wasn't in a place to be squeezed. He was behind, should have backed off. Kissing Tom's behind to show he's there is one thing. Forcefully eliminating the car in front is something entirely different.

Now with the exclusion and the 3 place grid drop Bennani's penalty is right about where it should be.

[mikuni]

I really don't know where Bennani was meant to go. Coronel just close the door on him. I think Bennani had the right to hold his ground, and Coronel should have given him space.

[Greem]

If Bennani backed off he'd have triggered a pileup from the drivers behind him (very close behind).

Bit of a poisoned chalice for him, that one. I still feel Coronel could have moved just a fraction. As I said, 50/50.

[Bramzel]

Coronel about the damage, translated from Autosport.nl:

The damage to the car is huge. I can't remember when I had this much damage with a racecar. Together with the people from ROAL Motorsport we assessed the damage and the bodyshell has been damaged. Those aren't available in stock, so racing next week will be difficult if not impossible. The car is in Barcelona on Wednesday, then we should be on our way already to France for the next race. But for repairs we need to be in the UK, where bodyshells aren't in stock. It's looking really bad.

And the first raw montage from the footage from Coronels car, plus aftermath, plus reactions from Coronel and Bennani:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMfLnBV1Y1Q

The onboards do show me that Bennani was further along than I first thought he was. Coronel should've given him more space, he punished himself I think.