Yvan Muller ensured that the battle for the 2012 World Touring Car Championship will go to the wire after securing his first win around the streets of Macau, coupled with a retirement for Rob Huff.
Click here for the full Round 23 Results.
Alain Menu and Tiago Monteiro completed the podium for Round 23, with Huff heading into the final race of the campaign 17 points ahead of Muller with Menu a further 2 points behind.
Off the rolling start, Muller took the lead from Huff on the run to Lisboa while further back, a multi car accident involving Mehdi Bennani and Stefano D’Aste blocked the circuit and allowed the top six drivers to pull away, with the incident holding up the main contenders in the Yokohama Independents’ category.
Huff made a brave move for the lead of the race on the fourth lap into Lisboa but later on in the lap the British driver made a mistake and made contact with the barriers, and Huff pitted with damage to the #2 Chevrolet Cruze, allowing Muller back into the lead.
From that moment on, Menu put constant pressure on his French team-mate and the two had contact on the eighth lap which put the current Champion into a slide which he held while Menu backed off.
This then allowed the Honda of Monteiro to catch up and get involved in the battle for the lead, while fourth placed Gabriele Tarquini backed off and allowed the top three to have their battle.
Yokohama Independents’ pole position driver, Darryl O’Young finished a lonely fifth in the #20 bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruze ahead of Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC, Franz Engstler in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC, Fredy Barth in the SEAT Tuenti Racing Team SEAT Leon, Alex MacDowall in the sister bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruze and Tom Boardman in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon.
Having been caught up in the Lisboa accident, Norbert Michelisz rejoined towards the end of the race and keeps his 12 point advantage over Pepe Oriola, who also failed to finish the opening race. After the contact at turn one, Stefano D’Aste attempted to continue for a lap before being shown a black and orange flag due to the extensive front-end damage to his BMW.
The final race of the season, Round 24, takes place at 04:20 GMT (05:20 CET).