1st Race: Victory for Robert Huff
Rob Huff took a commanding victory for Chevrolet in the first World Touring Car race in Macau on Sunday – as runner-up finisher Gabriele Tarquini moved a step closer to capturing the drivers’ title.
Huff led away cleanly at the rolling start as fellow front-row starter Andy Priaulx hit trouble – falling back into the pack and then clouting the wall at the exit of the first kink as he tried to fight off his rivals.
Priaulx’s problems allowed Tiago Monteiro to move up to second spot, with Tarquini charging through the order from seventh to third by the time the cars braked into Lisboa Bend.
Huff opened up a cushion over Monteiro until lap eight, when the Portuguese SEAT driver slowed down – handing second place to Tarquini.
Third place eventually went to Jordi Gene, who finished ahead of Alain Menu and Yvan Muller – now the only man capable of stopping Tarquini taking the world title, six points behind.
Monteiro dropped to sixth to give an extra place to fellow ORECA SEAT driver Muller, while the BMWs of Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus also slowed on the final lap – giving two further places to Muller – to secure the front row of the grid for the day’s second race.
Priaulx’s accident on the first lap resulted in major damage to the right front of his car, but he was able to return to the pits for repairs – rejoining the action just before the chequered flag.
Here are the standings of this race:
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Robert Huff Chevrolet 23m02.627s
2. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 7.952s
3. Jordi Gene SEAT 8.996s
4. Alain Menu Chevrolet 10.328s
5. Yvan Muller SEAT 13.534s
6. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 15.517s
7. Jorg Muller BMW 15.782s
8. Augusto Farfus BMW 15.967s
9. Alex Zanardi BMW 16.301s
10. Sergio Hernandez BMW 16.527s
11. Rickard Rydell SEAT 16.618s
12. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 18.476s
13. Tom Coronel SEAT 21.356s
14. Felix Porteiro BMW 21.961s
15. Tom Boardman SEAT 29.923s
16. Franz Engstler BMW 30.468s
17. Kristian Poulsen BMW 44.647s
18. Norbertu Taniguchi BMW 46.571s
19. Takayuki Aoki BMW 56.298s
20. Henry Ho BMW 1m23.908s
21. Kit Meng Lei BMW 2m02.061s
22. Jo Merszei BMW 2m02.321s
23. Jaap van Lagen Lada +2 laps
24. Liu Lic Ka BMW +2 laps
25. Andre Couto SEAT +2 laps
DNF.Andy Priaulx BMW 2 laps completed
text at: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80289
picture at: http://autosport.aeiou.pt/gen.pl?p=stories&op=view&fokey=as.stories/79166
2nd Race: Augusto Farfus wins, and Gabriele Tarquini is the champion
Augusto Farfus won an incident-filled final round of the World Touring Car Championship in Macau on Sunday, but all eyes were on Gabriele Tarquini who clinched the drivers’ title.
Farfus led away cleanly from pole position and held an advantage throughout the early stages of the race from BMW team-mate Jorg Muller, who himself was fighting off the close attention of SEAT duo Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro. Behind them, Tarquini had moved up fifth on lap seven when Jordi Gene slowed.
The battle at the front was interrupted by a safety car on lap three, when Tom Boardman crashed in the Solitude Esses, and then the race was red-flagged at the end of lap eight when there was a spectacular crash at the R Bend final corner.
Felix Porteiro ran wide and hit the barriers, before his car was swiped by Franz Engstler’s BMW. Engstler’s car was then left stationary in the middle of the track where it was collected heavily by local driver Andre Couto.
With debris all over the track there was no option but to halt the race and, after a brief delay, it was decided that the event would not be restarted.
It meant that Tarquini’s fifth placed finish was enough for him to take the WTCC crown, with his SEAT team doing enough to take the manufacturers’ title.
Tarquini had been suffering an engine misfire in the second race so was nervous about his chances of taking the title if there had been a restart – so was relieved that his accidents earlier in the weekend and the late drama had not hit his title chances.
“It is fantastic,” said Tarquini. “I had some crashes in practice and qualifying, which isn’t the best way to approach the weekend in Macau, but the team did a fantastic job to rebuild the car.”
Here are the results of this race:
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Augusto Farfus BMW 22m20.166s
2. Jorg Muller BMW 0.801s
3. Yvan Muller SEAT 1.201s
4. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1.980s
5. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 3.815s
6. Jordi Gene SEAT 5.018s
7. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 5.359s
8. Robert Huff Chevrolet 5.895s
9. Alex Zanardi BMW 6.167s
10. Rickard Rydell SEAT 6.712s
11. Sergio Hernandez BMW 7.764s
12. Felix Porteiro BMW 8.290s
13. Andy Priaulx BMW 8.583s
14. Franz Engstler BMW 9.390s
15. Norbertu Taniguchi BMW 10.635s
16. Takayuki Aoki BMW 12.819s
17. Andre Couto SEAT 13.531s
18. Kit Meng Lei BMW 24.275s
19. Henry Ho BMW 27.175s
20. Jo Merszei BMW 27.530s
21. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2 laps
DNF.Tom Coronel SEAT 4 laps completed
DNF.Tom Boardman SEAT 2 laps completed
DNF.Kristian Poulsen BMW 2 laps completed
Filed under: Auto Racing News MWN, WTCC News MWN | Tagged: augusto farfus, augusto farfus wins macau 2nd race, augusto farfus wtcc, bmw, bmw wtcc, chevrolet, chevrolet wtcc, farfus, farfus wins macau 2nd race, farfus wtcc, gabriele tarquini, gabriele tarquini championship at macau, gabriele tarquini wtcc, huff, huff wins macau 1st race, huff wtcc, robert huff, robert huff wins macau 1st race, robert huff wtcc, seat, seat wtcc, tarquini, tarquini championship at macau, tarquini wtcc, wtcc, wtcc 2009, wtcc at macau, wtcc at macau races, wtcc macau, wtcc macau races
