Porto WTCC: James Nash escapes from action to clinch race two win

The Briton started from pole, protected his advantage through the first few corners and therein gradually eased away as constant fights broke out behind.

Chief protagonists were the Chevrolets, with Michel Nykjaer, Pepe Oriola, Yvan Muller and Tom Chilton all fighting their way up from the lower reaches of the reverse-grid top 10 starting order.

Of the quartet it was Nykjaer who enjoyed most success, passing Lada's James Thompson and then the SEAT of Marc Basseng - both times at the final chicane - to move into third.

Despite his best efforts he was unable to find a way past defending champion Rob Huff however, with the Briton's staunch defence ensuring he once again finished as the highest non-Chevrolet driver, this time in second.

Huff did overshot the final chicane at mid-distance, a transgression stewards announced they will investigate.

Basseng was able to close back in on Nykjaer as the latter squabbled with Huff, but with two laps to go had to catch a wild slide that allowed Oriola to nip by into fourth.

Thompson was next up in sixth, just ahead of points leader and race one winner Yvan Muller and the ROAL BMW of Tom Coronel.

Muller's RML stablemate Tom Chilton had made an excellent start and worked his way ahead of Oriola through the first few corners, but the Spaniard lunged back down the inside at Turn 16 on the opening lap.

Chilton was forced into avoiding measures that allowed Yvan Muller to also steal past, which in turn compromised the Briton's exit onto the back straight and ended up costing him four places in total. He fought back to finish ninth, ahead of Mehdi Bennani.

Honda missed the points completely, with Tiago Monteiro its best-placed driver in 11th.

A turbo change meant Gabriele Tarquini started from the back of the grid, and he was only able to come through to 20th, while Norbert Michelisz elected not to start at all due to extensive damage suffered in race one.

Results - 11 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet     23m41.247s
 2.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT            +5.624s
 3.  Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet          +6.012s
 4.  Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet        +6.368s
 5.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT            +7.946s
 6.  James Thompson      Lada                    +8.683s
 7.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet           +9.336s
 8.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                +9.805s
 9.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet          +10.178s
10.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW            +10.669s
11.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                  +11.019s
12.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                 +11.560s
13.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW               +15.262s
14.  Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT            +23.847s
15.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW           +30.812s
16.  Nikolay Karamishev  Campos SEAT            +31.836s
17.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet       +32.306s
18.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW           +33.542s
19.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                   +34.673s
20.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                  +36.144s

Retirements:

     Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW             9 laps
     Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT             7 laps
     Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT              4 laps
     Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT         DNS
     Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda                 DNS