One apiece for Muller and Priaulx

Yvan Muller and Andy Priaulx claimed one victory apiece at Brands Hatch in two extremely close races that also launched Colin Turkington as the rising star in the WTCC heaven.

In Race 1 Muller and Rob Huff gave Chevrolet a 1-2 finish ahead of Turkington who managed to steal third place from Alain Menu’s third Cruze, while Gabriele Tarquini scored important points finishing fourth and Priaulx obtained an eighth place that eventually proved crucial for the rest of the day.

Priaulx won the second race starting from pole position on the reverse grid. Turkington made another step forward claiming a brilliant second place from Tarquini, with Muller in fifth.

After a difficult beginning to his home weekend, Priaulx jumped from zero to hero, recovering from a 10 position grid penalty that had demoted him to 16th at the start of Race 1 to the highest step of the podium.

The championship fight is also very close. Muller leads with 199 points and has a margin of 23 over Tarquini, while Priaulx is a further 28 points behind. And Huff cannot be discounted, lying 69 points behind the leader.

Thanks to the 33 points he scored in the overall championship and the additional points for the category’s pole position and fastest laps, Turkingon made a giant leap forward in the Independents’ Trophy. After only four races, the Ulsterman is second, 11 points behind Sergio Hernández.

Norbert Michelisz won both races in the Rookie Challenge and ousted Fredy Barth from the lead.

The championship will resume for rounds 13 and 14 at Brno, Czech Republic, on August 1st.