Race 2 : The champion strikes back
Tarquini wins, Gené second, Menu third
Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini led SR-Sport team mate Jordi Gené across the line for a SEAT León TDI one-two, over 5-seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Chevrolet’s Alain Menu rounded out the podium.
After the earlier downpour, Race 2 was a different story with a dry track and bright sunshine. Poleman Tom Coronel had a terrible start ending in the gravel at turn one after contact with Rob Huff and then slowly creeping back to the pits.
Gené took over the lead with Tarquini, Huff, Menu and Muller behind. After making a bad start Augusto Farfus made contact with fellow BMW Team RBM racer Andy Priaulx off the start with the latter making it back to the pits but also out of the race due to the damage sustained. Farfus then ran wide at the Esse de Baixa dropping from his third grid spot down to seventh.
On lap three Tarquini made his move for the lead, taking the inside line through the Esse de Baixa and moving ahead of Gené.
Tarquini and Gené began to pull out in front with the three Chevrolet’s of Huff, Menu and Muller behind. Huff began to drop back and eventually Menu and Muller both capitalised demoting the Brit to fifth. Huff then began to feel pressure from behind with Farfus, Tiago Monteiro and Michel Nykjær all chasing him for position.
The final order across the line was Tarquini from Gené, Menu, Muller, Huff, Farfus, Monteiro, Nykjær and Michelisz.
Sergio Hernández took his second Independents’ victory of the day rounding out the top ten, despite pressure from Franz Engstler in the closing stages. Nykjær’s eighth place finish also gave him the Rookie Challenge win.
After the damage sustained from an incident in Race 1, Andrei Romanov was the only driver not to make the start of Race 2.
Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
---|---|---|---|
01 | G. Tarquini | Seat Leon TDI | 20m13.311s |
02 | J. Gene | Seat Leon TDI | + 1.276s |
03 | A. Menu | Chevrolet Cruze | + 5.407s |
04 | Y. Muller | Chevrolet Cruze | + 5.985s |
05 | R. Huff | Chevrolet Cruze | + 8.295s |
06 | A. Farfus | BMW 320si | + 8.596s |
07 | T. Monteiro | Seat Leon TDI | + 10.419s |
08 | M. Nykjaer | Seat Leon TDI | + 11.808s |
09 | N. Michelisz | Seat Leon TDI | + 17.576s |
10 | S. Hernandez | BMW 320si | + 24.244s |
11 | F. Engstler | BMW 320si | + 24.643s |
12 | M. Bennani | BMW 320si | + 30.072s |
13 | H. Vaulkhard | Chevrolet Lacetti | + 30.923s |
14 | F. Barth | Seat Leon TDI | + 39.780s |
15 | S. D’Aste | BMW 320si | + 40.328s |
16 | D. O’Young | Chevrolet Lacetti | + 40.481s |
17 | T. Coronel | Seat Leon TDI | 13 LAPS |
18 | A. Priaulx | BMW 320si | 14 LAPS |
Best Lap | G. Tarquini | Seat Leon TDI | 1m25.803s |
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