Slovakia: First win of the year for Huff

The second WTCC race at the Slovakia Ring saw Chevrolet’s Robert Huff overcome the disappointment of failing to score in the opening race to take victory over his teammate Yvan Muller, with the SEAT León of Gabriele Tarquini finishing third.

An incident-packed race began even before the warm-up lap, when Tarquini’s teammate Aleksei Dudukalo was given a drive-through penalty because all four of his car’s wheels weren’t on the ground when the five-minute board was shown on the grid. In addition, the Ford Focus of Team AON’s James Nash and the Team Engstler BMW of Charles Ng failed to start the race after incidents during Race 1.

Pole-sitter Stefano D’Aste was first into Turn 1, but the three Chevrolet Cruze cars of Huff, Muller and Alain Menu were quickly threatening D’Aste and all three took their chance when the BMW ran wide, as did Tarquini. The all-Chevrolet top three was short-lived, however, as Tarquini grabbed third place from Menu on lap 2. Tom Coronel then passed Menu on lap 4 before the Swiss driver pulled up with a broken rim following a contact with D’Aste.

The Huff-Muller 1-2 then survived unscathed until the chequered flag, despite a last-lap incident that saw third-placed Tarquini make contact with the rear of Muller’s car. Tarquini sportingly chose to take no advantage from the collision.

Behind the battle for the podium positions, Tom Chilton finished 10th in his Ford Focus after surviving an incident on the second lap with Tiago Monteiro that saw the Portuguese driver retire from the race. A similar fate befell Alex MacDowall and Gabor Weber, while D’Aste managed to finish in 14th place.

In the Yokohama Trophy, it was Pepe Oriola’s turn to pick up maximum points, while Norbert Michelisz finished second and Mehdi Bennani a brilliant third.

Key moments
Start - D’Aste is first into T1
Lap 1 - D‘Aste runs wide, allowing Huff, Muller, Menu and Tarquini to pass. Coronel and Monteiro also pass D’Aste, who drops back. Michelisz then passes Monteiro
Lap 2 - Tarquini passes Menu for 3rd place. Contact between Chilton and Monteiro. Contact between MacDowall, Wéber and D’Aste
Lap 3 - MacDowall comes into the pits and retires
Lap 4 - Coronel passes Menu for 4th going into T1. Contact between Muller and Huff. Menu into the gravel at T6. Chilton passes Boardman for 10th place
Lap 6 - Michelisz passes Bennani for 6th place
Lap 10 - Contact between Tarquini and Muller. Muller half-spins, but Tarquini doesn’t take advantage

Withdrawals
J. Nash: DNS; C. Ng: DNS; A. Menu: race incident; A. MacDowall: race incident; T. Monteiro: engine; G. Wéber: race incident