Yvan Muller has made it two out of two at Monza, as he came from ninth on the grid to win the second World Touring Car Championship race of the day. Michel Nykjaer finished in second, with Gabriele Tarquini in third.
Click here for the full Round 2 Results.
An exciting second race of the day began without the need of the safety car, although conditions were arguably as wet at the first race.
Darryl O’Young led the race from pole position at the start, although he was passed under acceleration from the first chicane by Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini. Münnich Motorsport’s Marc Basseng also made a strong start from second, although he was eventually past by Muller on lap four.
Muller himself was up to sixth by the end of the opening lap, and by lap three the Frenchman was in a podium position. Then on lap four Muller passed both Basseng and Tarquini to take the lead, before opening up a comfortable gap which was two and a half seconds at the chequered flag.
“It was not easy because it was impossible to see the lights of the car in front,” said Muller after the race. “It was very tricky to brake at the good points – at one stage I braked 500 m before the corner because I didn’t know where I was!”
“I’m especially pleased because we spent so much energy since last year when Chevrolet decided to pull out. We’ve worked hard to put this programme together and I’m very pleased because of this situation.”
Nykjaer held on to finish in second, securing his second-ever WTCC podium finish. Third was Tarquini, although the veteran Italian had to endure significant pressure from débutante Basseng on the final lap, with the German missing out by just 0.087 seconds.
Tom Chilton moved through from eighth on the grid to take fifth after a slow start, with Pepe Oriola finishing in sixth, scoring the fastest lap of the race in the process.
James Nash finished in seventh after coming under race-long pressure from Chilton and Oriola.
Tiago Monteiro ensured that both Honda’s finished in the points with eighth, whilst Stefano D’Aste and Rob Huff completed the top ten.
Finishing just outside the points in a difficult race for the ROAL Motorsport team were Tom Coronel and Darryl O’Young, who progressively dropped back after starting from pole position.
All drivers were classified as race finishers.
Muller’s double victory leaves him comfrotable at the top of the championship on 55 points, with Tom Chilton in second on 32 points. Gabriele Tarquini in third has almost half as many points as leader Muller with the Italian on 28 points.