Race of Malaysia Race 2 | 15 Dec 19 | |||||
Mehdi Bennani (born 25 August 1983) is a Moroccan racing driver who currently competes in the World Touring Car Championship with Sébastien Loeb Racing.
He became the first Moroccan driver to win a world championship race organized by the FIA, after his victory in Shanghai, WTCC.
Like most racing drivers, Bennani started out in karting, winning his national championship in 2001. He finished as runner-up in the European Karting Championship in the 100 ICA class. He also won the Moroccan Fiat Palio Trophy in 2001. He moved into single-seaters and was runner-up in Formula BMW Asia in 2004. He moved to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2005 with the Avalon Formula team, racing against the likes of Robert Kubica and Will Power. He also competed for EuroInternational in 2006, but failed to score a point in his time in the series. He competed in Euroseries 3000 in 2007, finished 14th at the final standings and scored a best result of fourth. In 2008 he competed in the Pau Historical Grand Prix, where he finished second.
After making his WTCC debut in 2009, he established himself as an ever-present in the series and became the first Arabic driver to win an FIA world championship motor race in Shanghai in 2014.