Race 2: Priaulx claims home win for RBM

Andy Priaulx claimed his third win of the season in Belgium this afternoon, taking victory on home soil for his BMW Team RBM based 150km from Circuit Zolder. Britain’s Rob Huff finished second for Chevrolet ahead of Tiago Monteiro.

Norbert Michelisz claimed his second rookie honours while, after a race long battle, Sergio Hernández secured the Independents’ victory.

Priaulx made a clean getaway from pole to lead the pack into the first corner but Michelisz, alongside him on the front row, was slow off the line dropping down to eighth. Tom Coronel also stalled on the grid and held up Pierre-Yves Corthals behind.

The field made it cleanly through the first corner with Monteiro close to the back off Huff’s Chevrolet. As the cars came across the line to complete the first lap, Huff was right on the bumper of the leading BMW 320si of Priaulx and challenging for the lead. The order was now Priaulx from Huff, Monteiro, Menu, Muller, Tarquini, Farfus, Michelisz, Poulsen and Barth.

Huff continued to hound Priaulx, desperately looking for a way through while his tyres were working well but Priaulx kept a steady head and kept the Chevrolet firmly behind.
Further down the field a great battle in the Independents category was emerging with Kristian Poulsen first losing the lead to Sergio Hernández but continuing to fight back; on lap 3 Harry Vaulkhard, who was third in the class, went off after losing the front-left tyre.
On lap seven, Michel Nykjær bounced across the kerbs spinning into the gravel. He managed to get his SEAT León TDI going but retired in the pits.

BMW Team RBM’s Farfus was defending sixth from Tarquini but Priaulx was now out in front with a 0.7-second gap.

Stefano D’Aste made a clean move down the inside to take 13th position from Moroccan driver Mehdi Bennani. As the battle in the Independents continued, Poulsen briefly regained the lead but was re-passed by Hernández for ninth. In the action, Coronel capitalised getting his SEAT León TDI down the inside of the BMW 320si of Poulsen dropping him down the order a further position to eleventh.

Priaulx now had a 1.5-second lead out in front while Huff dropped back towards Monteiro in third. The order was now Priaulx from Huff, Monteiro, Menu, Muller, Tarquini, Farfus, Michelisz, Barth, Hernández, Coronel and Poulsen.

Farfus then ran wide after getting alongside Tarquini in sixth allowing Michelisz to come through into seventh. On the last lap D’Aste dropped two places to fifth locking up and then running wide with Bennani making contact with him from behind.

As the chequered flag was waved, Priaulx claimed his third victory of the season by just over a second from Huff and Monteiro. Menu, Muller and Tarquini were next across the line. Michelisz came home in seventh to claim another rookie victory ahead of Darryl O’Young (P16) and Fredy Barth (P18).

Farfus was eighth in the second BMW Team RBM car. Hernández took the Independents’ trophy in ninth with Coronel rounding out the top ten. Hernández’s closest Independent rivals were Poulsen and D’Aste in 11th and 12th respectively.

After victory in Race 1, Jordi Gené’s SR-Sport team had to do some fast work on the grid to replace the flat bottom of his SEAT León TDI but he then retired in the pits before the start because of a turbo failure.

The championship battle is now wide open with Muller (125) leading by just 22 points from Priaulx (103) who moves up to second. Tarquini and Huff are now joint third on 102 points.