Tiago Monteiro takes dominant race two win

Honda’s Tiago Monteiro took a dominant win in the second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, as championship leader José María López retired from the race.

Monteiro took the lead as the lights went out with a strong start to jump both front row men from third on the grid. Thereafter the Portuguese driver had a comfortable race, opening up a huge 9.2 second lead by the chequered flag.

Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente scored a career-best second, with LADA’s Rob Huff impressively completing the podium, having started the race in 13^th on the grid.

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The race was notable in that both of Citroën’s championship challengers López and Yvan Muller retired from the race. López went out after the opening lap after picking up a puncture through contact with team-mate Sébastien Loeb, whilst Muller was running in third when his bonnet came loose following contact with Valente. The Frenchman was initially shown the black-and-orange flag, but called it a day whilst running in 14^th with little prospect of any points.

A late-race battle for the final podium position saw Huff hold on to score his second podium of the year, ahead of Loeb, who edged out Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini on the final lap, with the position changing hands several times in the process.

Ma Qing Hua was sixth, although the Chinese driver had been challenging for fourth when he was knocked out of position by Tarquini on lap four.

UPDATE: Tarquini was later handed a post-race 30-second penalty for the contact with Ma, dropping him to 12th position.

After their brake-related retirements in race one, ROAL Motorsport duo Tom Chilton and Tom Coronel scored points with seventh and eighth respectively in race two, with both drivers benefitting from the demise of those in front.

LADA’s Nicolas Lapierre, scoring points on his WTCC début, and Münnich Motorsport’s Stefano D’Aste completed the top ten.

Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz had been running in seventh position before the Hungarian pulled his battle-scarred Honda into the pitlane.

LADA’s Nick Catsburg, who started the race from the front row, eventually retired from the race, having earlier plummeted down the order on the opening tour, ending lap one in eighth position.

Original Race result (Click here for the amended result)

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	18		Tiago MONTEIRO		Castrol Honda WTC Team	Honda Civic WTCC	13	25:53.893	1:57.513	3
2	7	Y	Hugo VALENTE		Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	9.222	1:58.320	1
3	12		Rob HUFF		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	13	10.938	1:58.388	13
4	9		Sébastien LOEB		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	11.703	1:58.808	8
5	2		Gabriele TARQUINI		Castrol Honda WTC Team	Honda Civic WTCC	13	11.792	1:57.921	5
6	33		MA Qing Hua		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	12.894	1:58.298	6
7	3	Y	Tom CHILTON		ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	17.474	1:59.538	12
8	4	Y	Tom CORONEL		ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	21.284	1:59.774	15
9	47		Nicolas LAPIERRE		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	13	28.053	2:00.414	11
10	26	Y	Stefano D’ASTE		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	32.744	1:59.974	17
11	25	Y	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	13	35.253	1:59.186	7
12	27	Y	John FILIPPI		Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	41.364	2:00.143	16
13	11	Y	Grégoire DEMOUSTIER		Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	13	42.109	2:00.262	14
14	5	Y	Norbert MICHELISZ		Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	12	1 Lp.	1:59.374	10
15	68		Yvan MULLER		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	11	2 Lp.	1:58.117	4
R	10		Nick CATSBURG		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	5	8 Lp.	1:58.891	2
R	37		José María LÓPEZ		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	1	12 Lp.	–	9