Argentinian guest driver José María López has sensationally won the second World Touring Car Championship race in Argentina, as championship leader Yvan Muller received a drive-through penalty.
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López, guest driving for Wiechers-Sport this weekend, led the race from start to finish having started from pole position. The experienced Argentine touring car driver opened up a comfortable lead over the first four laps, which was further extended when Muller made contact with the back of Tiago Monteiro, knocking the Honda driver out of second position.
That allowed Gabriele Tarquini to move up to second, with the Italian having earlier dropped down as low as seventh as a result of trying to pass the Chevrolet of Michel Nykjær. Tarquini would hold on to second for the rest of the race, unable to catch López and prevent him from becoming only the second WTCC ‘guest’ driver to win a race, after Duncan Huisman won at Macau in 2005.
Pepe Oriola carried his Tuenti Racing Chevrolet to third overall and his second podium finish of the day – the first time the Spaniard has stood on the podium in both races in a weekend.
Nykjær held on to finish in fourth in his Nika Racing Chevrolet, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz in sixth. Michelisz had earlier been battling with Brits Rob Huff and James Thompson for seventh, before Huff was forced to retire with a broken front-right steering arm and Thompson retired with mechanical problems.
Monteiro fought back from Muller’s contact to finish in sixth, ahead of the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet of James Nash in seventh.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente took the chequered flag in eighth, although the Frenchman was involved in an incident which spun ROAL Motorsport’s Darryl O’Young out of tenth position with just two laps to go.
Tom Coronel and Stefano D’Aste completed the top ten in their ROAL and PB Racing BMW’s respectively.
Alex MacDowall headed up a trio of Chevrolet drivers outside the points in 11th, with Tom Chilton failing to score in 12th after an earlier spin involving the former. Muller came home in 13th after his penalty.
The result sees Muller’s considerable championship lead reduced slightly to 132 points over Nykjær, with Tarquini a further 14 back.