Curitiba - Race 2: Menu takes last gap win

Alain Menu gave Chevrolet their second victory of the day, but it was not an easy one as the Swiss racer had to fight until the last metre with Tom Coronel’s BMW.

After taking the lead from the Dutchman on the tenth lap, for the remaining four Menu had to resist Coronel’s attacks and eventually beat him by inches on the finish line.

Yvan Muller completed the podium after an unexpectedly tough fight with his team-mate Rob Huff that culminated in a contact on lap 10.

Equally thrilling was the battle for the Yokohama Trophy. Kristian Poulsen and Michel Nykjær who were also fighting for the eighth position overall, eliminated each other in a crash and handed the lead to Javier Villa who managed to claim his first victory on his maiden appearance.

Key moments
Start – Coronel and Tarquini squeeze between Nykjær and Menu to 1st and 2nd
Lap 1 – Huff and Muller overtake Nykjær for 4th and 5th
Lap 3 – Menu overtakes Tarquini for 2nd
Lap 4 – Tarquini is demoted to 6th by Huff, Muller and Bueno
Lap 6 – Poulsen and Nykjær crash at Turn 1 and retire
Lap 9 – Barth crashes at Turn 9 and retires
Lap 10 – Menu takes the lead from Coronel at Turn 1
Lap 11 – Muller overtakes Huff for second

Withdrawals
F. Fabiani: engine; M. Bennani: engine; M. Nykjær: race incident; F. Barth: race incident.

Rob HUFF – winner of Race 1: “It was a brilliant week-end for the team and to leave Brazil as the championship leader makes me very happy! Race 1 was pretty uneventful, we just had to finish the job we had started in qualifying. Race 2 was very intense. My engine stalled a bit behind Coronel and that’s when Yvan passed me, we had a good fight in the following two corners, but everything went ok.”

Alain MENU – winner of Race 2: “A much better day than yesterday! I was lucky because of the sanction to Barth, but after all the bad luck last year, I think it was just a fair compensation... I had a poor start and then had to fight to regain the lead. I could pass Tarquini relatively easily but Coronel was much harder. I knew the only place where I could make it was at the end of the straight, where I could brake a little bit later, so I did not miss the opportunity when he left me some space on the inside."