A debut pole position in qualifying means Yoshida starts on pole for today's Moroccan eV-Prix, but with championship leader Zozulya and his nearest rival Taylor right behind, it's set to be an intriguing race. An average Moroccan day sees all 3 compounds in action - admittedly half the field has chosen mediums but of the rest, 6 - Yoshida, both K8ley drivers, Ostberg, Zhao and Einarsson - have taken the soft tyres, with the other 7 - McLaughlin, Maxwell, Hutchinson, the two Porsche's, Stokey and Davies - went for hards. The soft tyres did not help Yoshida off the start though, as Zozulya got the better getaway and lead into turn 1. He lead comfortably over the opening laps, as Yoshida fended off Taylor. Matthews and Maxwell held position but further back, McLaughlin struggled on his hard tyres and was overtaken by Cesar and Domenicalli. Davies' race came to an early end when he clouted the inside barrier at turn 10 on lap 2. Back in the midfield, Hutchinson and Bergkvist also struggled in the early stages, while Thunder had made up 4 places by lap 4.
Maxwell had held onto 5th early on but his disadvantage on the hard tyres became clear as van Snelheid and Cesar made light work of him. Hutchinson and Bergkvist continued to lose places, as did Haugland, who had a spin on the exit of the last corner to lose places to Hudson, Zvironas and Ellington. The soft runners were due in on lap 8 and Yoshida emerged in 8th - the next soft shod car was Domenicalli down in 16th. Notably, Lada got Ostberg out ahead of the Italian's teammate, Kasami. Another factor was thrown in though when on lap 9, rain began to fall. The drivers had to be careful to keep the car out of the walls and some were enjoying it more clearly - Ostberg in particular who made on places on Domenicalli and other hard runners. Medium tyred cars were in on lap 11, though Zozulya and Taylor still held the top two places, ahead of Maxwell, Yoshida and McLaughlin. Just behind them, van Snelheid was engaging in a scrap with Matthews, which the Dutchman won when he sent a late move on the OSM at turn 1 on lap 13. That same lap, Cesar, running behind the pair, lost it under braking for turn 4 and spun off while Einarsson topped off a double Renault DNF. As a result, the safety car had to be called, which lasted for 3 laps, meaning soft (2nd stop) and hard (only stop) drivers had to pit under yellow conditions and dropped to the back. It lead to a jumbled up order on lap 15 - Zozulya led from Taylor, van Snelheid, Matthews and Klien. Thunder, Hudson, Zvironas and Ellington followed. The first non medium shod car was Yoshida in 14th, ahead of Maxwell, McLaughlin, Ostberg and Domenicalli. Racing resumed on lap 17, as conditions worsened. The soft runners were making their way through, with Yoshida overtaking Haugland, Nakumaya and Garcia on consecutive laps while Ostberg dispatched the two hard drivers in front of him. They were helped when Thunder spun off at turn 7, throwing away a potential good result, while Matthews nearly did the same with a spin of his own at turn 4 though he was able to rejoin - Klien ran wide himself after seeing the spin, allowing Hudson to slip past both of them as Matthews rejoined behind the pair. But the big story of the race came on lap 19: leading from Taylor, Zozulya put two wheels on the outer kerb at the final turn and the rear stepped out. The car spun off onto the run off and all of a sudden Zozulya went from looking at 25 points to a shock DNF. Taylor now led from van Snelheid, but behind Zvironas showed some of his Britain dominance as he overtook 3 cars in a lap - he slipstreamed past Matthews before they reached turn 1, eased past Klien on the outside of turn 6/7, before taking Hudson on the brakes into turn 12 - to move into the podium places. Lap 22 saw the medium runners pit for the final time - slow stops for Hudson and Matthews allowed Klien and Ellington pass respectively, with Matthews also coming out behind Maxwell. The soft runners were in 2 laps later, Yoshida and Ostberg emerging in 10th and 11th, the rest well back. Taylor and van Snelheid had checked out at this point, as did Zvironas, but the battle behind them raged on. Hudson fought back against Klien and the two banged wheels at the final turn at one point, but a carefully set up move through turn 1 to 3 saw the American pull off a fantastic move as he ducked under the Austrian at turn 1 and 2 before powering past on the outside of 3. Matthews was also getting it back together - he was easily past Maxwell but he pressurised Ellington into a small error at turn 8, before pouncing with some late braking at turn 9. Maxwell made a bigger error at the same spot, running wide and allowing McLaughlin past into 8th - though both were soon overtaken by Yoshida and Ostberg. With 4 laps to go, Matthews was now looking at Klien, and a lap later he fancied his chances with a dive at turn 4. He pulled it off, caught Klien by surprise, and moved back into 5th. The Highwinds now had Yoshida and Ostberg on their tails - Yoshida overtook Ellington on the penultimate lap and took Klien on the last, while a overtake on the last pass through the turn 12/3/4 chicane meant Ostberg just about beat Ellington. Up front though, it was a storming win for Taylor with the fastest lap to slash the gap between him and Zozulya. Van Snelheid held off a charging Zvironas for the first eV podium for Arrow, while 3rd was a fantastic comeback for the latter. Hudson and Matthews were content with 4th and 5th, but Yoshida was dejected in 6th, feeling the safety car robbed him of a chance at the win. Klien and Ellington formed a sandwich around Ostberg in 8th who drove well in the wet to pick up a couple of points, while the former two were disappointed to lose positions at the end. McLaughlin had to make do with a single point, while 11th for Maxwell meant Downton leave here empty handed.
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