Jörg Müller
of BMW Team Germany and Alain Menu for Chevrolet claimed a win apiece
after two breathtaking races at Brands Hatch. The German drivers has
become the eleventh different driver to step on the highest podium
after the first 14 rounds of the season. As for Menu, this was his
second win of the season and his third in the WTCC at Brands Hatch in
three years.
Yvan Muller
claimed a brilliant second position in the first race, keeping the
reigning world champion Andy Priaulx at bay for the whole 14 laps, and
managed to steal the championship lead from his SEAT Sport team-mate
Gabriele Tarquini.
The
Frenchman has now got a two-point lead, but Priaulx, despite a
retirement in the second race, has climbed to third in the points and
he is only 16 points off the lead.
In the Manufacturers' Championship SEAT is still leading, but BMW have cut their gap to 29 points.
The championship will resume in Oschersleben, Germany, for rounds 15 and 16, after the Summer break on August 31st.
RACE 1 - JÖRG MÜLLER INHERITS VICTORY
Jörg Müller inherited his first victory of the season when Robert Huff went off while leading due to tyre problems.
At the start Augusto Farfus led from pole position, with Alain Menu and
Robert Huff behind him. However, within seconds it was all change as
there was contact between Farfus and Menu, which caused the poleman to
spin. He was then hit by Larini and went off into the gravel trap and
smacked into the wall. Huff took the lead with Müller behind him, Yvan
Muller in third and BMW's Andy Priaulx in fourth. Huff built up a two
second lead over Müller as the pair pulled away from the field.
Priaulx, Muller and Menu fought for the final podium position right up
until the chequered flag, but the reigning world champion could not
find a way through.
In
the final moments Nicola Larini suffered a puncture, and as he entered
the pits the same thing happened to the leader Huff. The Briton was
forced to pit and handed the win to Müller, falling to the back of the
pack. This promoted Yvan Muller to second, and Priaulx to third. Menu
slowed down near the end of the race and was overtaken by Zanardi, Tom
Coronel, Félix Porteiro and Gabriele Tarquini, who finished fourth to
seventh. Menu took eighth position and pole for the second race.
Having had a good fight with James Thompson for the 12th
position, Robert Dahlgren braked too hard into a corner and embedded
his Volvo C30 into the gravel trap. Stefano D'Aste took the
Independents win of the first race ahead of his championship rival
Sergio Hernández.
RACE 2 - MENU SAVES CHEVROLETS' WEEKEND
Alain Menu
gave Chevrolet something to smile about by winning the second race.
However, it was not easy, because although he started from pole he did
not keep the lead at the start. Félix Porterio took the lead from third
on the grid on into the first corners. The safety car had to be
deployed when there was a clash between Tom Coronel, James Thompson and
Jordi Gené. Porteiro led the pack into the restart on lap 6, but Menu
pushed his way past to take the lead into turn 1. This is how the top
two remained until the end of the race. Menu built up a lead, but to
avoid the tyre problems he eased his pace in the final laps and managed
to take the win followed closely by Porteiro, with Alessandro Zanardi
in third.
Jörg
Müller overtook Gabriele Tarquini for fourth on lap 8 and the BMW
driver completed an extremely good weekend; Tarquini scored some
valuable points towards the championship.
Augusto Farfus
finished in sixth position after performing some fantastic overtaking
moves to come up from twenty-fourth on the grid. He was even
challenging Tarquini for fifth as they crossed the line.
Stefano
D'Aste won the Independents' trophy again; he finished seventh overall
with Sergio Hernández him in eighth position, which demonstrated that
the best Independent cars were able to match the pace of the other cars.
Andy Priaulx
suffered a puncture which took him out of seventh position. However the
British driver leaves his home meeting in third place in the
championship.
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