Yvan Muller has extended his Championship advantage in the 2013 World Touring Car Championship to 113 points after securing his fourth victory of the season in Russia.
The triple Champion secured a first and second place finish in rounds 11 and 12 of the campaign to open up a 4 race win advantage – he could miss the trips to Portugal and Argentina and still lead the Championship.
Muller led the way from Pole Position in the opening race and took win four of the season despite the intense pressure from Tom Coronel behind and he then fought his way up the order in race 2 to finish 0.379s behind Michel Nykjær.
“Of course I’m very pleased,” said the Frenchman.
“A great weekend, with pole position, one victory and one second place – the team have done a super job again. I am especially happy for our partner Lukoil, as this is their home race. I didn’t expect to have nearly twice the points of my competitors after the first half of the season so this is quite amazing. But now we have to stay focused and keep working hard like this until the end.”
Team-mate Tom Chilton secured a brace of top 10 finishes in Russia after a bad qualifying session which left the British racer outside the top 10 in 12th.
He fought his way up to 9th in the opening race and improved even further in race 2, as he secured a top six finish after a mid race battle with Muller’s closest Championship rival, Gabriele Tarquini.
Despite his double top 10 result, Chilton has dropped down to eighth in the Championship ahead of the final European round of the season in Portugal at the end of June.
“I really enjoyed Moscow Raceway and what it had to offer this weekend,” explained Chilton.
“I’ve made further progress with this car and set the fastest front wheel drive time of the weekend in Q1. In the second race, going from P12 to P6 was a great fight and I enjoyed every second of it. I lost too much time battling to get up to the podium with Yvan, but am really happy to score points in both races again,” he concluded.