Shanghai, Race 2 - Muller wins with a bit of luck

An eighth and crucial victory in the season

By Franck Drui

6 November 2011 - 11:00
Shanghai, Race 2 - Muller wins with (…)

Yvan Muller claimed an eighth and crucial victory in the season that significantly increased his leading margin in the championship standings to twenty points ahead of his Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff.

The reigning world champion benefitted from a contact between Huff and Gabriele Tarquini on the first lap to move to second behind the Italian. Three more laps and Muller was leading and capable of creating a big gap.

Tarquini completed a great defensive race, salvaging a second position that was completely unexpected, considering the brake problems he had had in the first race and the fact that this was not the best track for the SUNRED León cars.

Once again Colin Turkington was among the top players, winning the Yokohama Trophy, narrowly missing the podium and offering a great show to the Chinese fans.

A brilliant Charles Ng scored his first WTCC point by finishing tenth after having started from the last spot of the grid.

Key moments
Start – Tarquini takes the best start, jumping in the lead ahead of poleman Huff and Turkington
Lap 1 – a crash eliminates Michelisz, Villa, Monteiro and O’Young; Nykjær is involved but rejoins
Lap 1 – Tarquini and Huff come together, Muller benefits and overtakes Turkington for second
Lap 2 – Huff overtakes Turkington for third
Lap 4 – Mulles overtakes Tarquini and takes the lead
Lap 5 – Oriola and Dahlgren overtake Bart moving up to eighth and ninth
Lap 6 – Muller creates a gap
Lap 9 – Tarquini is closely chased by Huff, Turkington, Coronel and Menu
Lap 10 – Turkington locks his brake at Turn 1 not to hit Huff and drops behind Coronel and Menu
Lap 11 – Poulsen joins the group fighting over the second place
Lap 14 – Engstler overtakes Oriola for eighth
Lap 19 – Turkington overtakes Menu for fifth
Lap 20 – Engstler also queues to Tarquini’s group in eighth position
Lap 24 – Menu pushes Turkington sideways but can’t find a gap to overtake him
Lap 25 – Huff and Coronel make contact and Turkington overtakes Coronel for fourth

Withdrawals
Y. Taniguchi, DNS: race incident, T. Monteir race incident, J. Villa: race incident, D. O’Young: race incident, N. Michelisz: race incident

Pos. Driver Car Time
01 Y. Muller Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25 laps - 28m19.599s
02 G. Tarquini SR Leon 1.6T +10.518s
03 R. Huff Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T +11.385s
04 C. Turkington BMW 320 TC +11.812s
05 T. Coronel BMW 320 TC +12.140s
06 A. Menu Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T +12.896s
07 K. Poulsen BMW 320 TC +13.336s
08 F. Engstler BMW 320 TC +13.612s
09 R. Dahlgren Volvo C30 +22.279s
10 C. Ng BMW 320 TC +24.172s
11 M. Bennani BMW 320 TC +33.725s
12 F. Barth SR Leon 1.6T +36.977s
13 P. Oriola SR Leon 1.6T +43.090s
14 M. Nykjaer SR Leon 1.6T +46.761s
15 F. Fabiani BMW 320 si +1 lap
16 P. Ma BMW 320 si +1 lap
17 A. Dudukalo SR Leon 1.6T +2 laps
18 D. O’Young Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T DNF
19 T. Monteiro SR Leon 1.6T DNF
20 N. Michelisz BMW 320 TC DNF
21 J. Villa BMW 320 TC DNF
22 Y. Taniguchi Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T DNS
Best lap Y. Muller Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:06.080

WTCR

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