Portimao - Race 2: Menu wins in Michel Vaillant’s shoes

Like in a happy ending movie, Alain Menu sealed his and Chevrolet’s Michel Vaillant experience by winning today’s second race in a dominant way. Just like Michel Vaillant had done many times in the comic books.

Menu took the lead at the start and pulled away, creating a big gap and leaving his competitors to have close and tough fights behind him.

Pepe Oriola and Tom Coronel fought for the whole race. Door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper, they took turns in the second place until Oriola managed to prevail, claiming his first WTCC podium and also the first ever for a 17-year old in an FIA World Championship.

Another tough battle involved Yvan Muller, Rob Huff, Gabriele Tarquini and Alberto Cerqui over the fourth place. After keeping the two Chevrolet drivers at bay for most of the race, Tarquini was the victim of a three-car clash and retired, while Huff and Muller finished fourth and fifth, with Cerqui in a brilliant sixth.

James Thompson’s LADA had finally a trouble-free race and was classified in an encouraging 11th place.

Key moments
Start – Menu sprints to take the lead from Oriola and Coronel; Michelisz stalls the engine
Lap 1 – Coronel overtakes Oriola for second
Lap 1 – a multiple collision involves D’Aste, Di Sabatino, Dudukalo, Boardman and Bennani
Lap 2 – Tarquini overtakes Cerqui and Monteiro moving up to fifth
Lap 3 – Oriola retakes second from Coronel; Tarquini overtakes Cerqui for fourth
Lap 4 – Muller overtakes Cerqui for fifth
Lap 6 – Monteiro drops to 10th behind MacDowall and Michelisz
Lap 7 – Muller and Cerqui make contact; Huff overtakes Cerqui for sixth
Lap 8 – Huff and Tarquini make contact and they collect Muller; Tarquini retires, Cerqui benefits from the incident and climbs to fourth
Lap 9 – Huff overtakes Cerqui for fourth
Lap 10 – Muller overtakes Cerqui for fifth

Withdrawals
T. Boardman: race incident; M. Bennani: race incident; J. Nash: set up probems