Farfus wins action-packed Race 2

Augusto Farfus took his first win of the season for BMW Team RBM this afternoon in a rain-soaked Okayama. Colin Turkington defended well in tricky conditions to finish second on the podium ahead of Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller.

Darryl O’Young finished 10th to take victory in the Independents while Michel Nykjær was winner of the Rookie Challenge in seventh although disappointed to have lost overall victory after running through the gravel while leading the race.

Muller now has a 37-point lead as championship rivals Andy Priaulx and Gabriele Tarquini both crashed out.

With heavy rain throughout, Race 2 both started and finished under safety car conditions. On lap three the race began and Nykjær had a clean start immediately pulling out a gap while Muller and Priaulx jostled for position further back.

Muller found a way passed Priaulx for sixth and his Chevrolet teammate Rob Huff also followed but Priaulx fought back to re-take seventh from Huff.

Mehdi Bennani went off in the gravel and Norbert Michelisz was also having problems dropping from 4th to 6th. Priaulx then lost the back end of his BMW 320si and spun out into the gravel at T7 hindering his championship charge.

Nykjær had pulled out a gap of over 4-seconds to the rest of the field when the safety car was deployed on lap seven as Kevin Chen’s BMW had stopped out on track. He managed to get going again but the safety car was already out so after just one lap the race restarted.

With the pressure back on, Nykjær made a mistake and went into the gravel losing the lead but rejoining in seventh. He then ran wide again dropping to ninth. Tarquini took over the lead from Farfus, Turkington, Muller and Huff with the Chevrolet cars battling for third.

Tarquini then became the second driver of the day to lose the lead, crashing out at T11. Farfus was now the new race leader ahead of Turkington, Muller, Huff, Michelisz, Menu, Dahlgren, Nykjær, Coronel and O’Young.

Sergio Hernández and Stefano D’Aste both went off before Michelisz ran wide dropping from 5th to 7th. Henry Ho then spun his BMW 320si and stopped on track bringing out the safety car for the final lap.

Robert Dahlgren had another strong race coming from 10th to finish sixth in his Volvo. O’Young took victory in the Independents’ Trophy with a 10th place.

Farfus took the chequered flag behind the safety car ahead of Turkington, Muller, Huff, Menu, Dahlgren, Nykjær, Michelisz, Coronel and O’Young.