Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Sonoma WTCC: Gabriele Tarquini win delays Yvan Muller's coronation

Gabriele Tarquini cruised to his second win of the season at Sonoma to move into second in the championship and delay Yvan Muller's coronation as 2013 World Touring Car champion

Muller came through from ninth on the grid to finish fourth, right on the tail of Norbert Michelisz's Zengo Honda. Poleman Mehdi Bennani was second.

As was the case in the opening contest, the order at the front was set away from the line, with Tarquini managing to stick it out around the outside of Bennani at Turn 1 and therefore slip by on the inside of Turn 2.

Bennani settled into second, but soon came under increasing pressure from Michelisz, who set the fastest lap of the race in a bid to close an early deficit.

Michelisz's attack turned to defence however as Muller picked off Tiago Monteiro, James Nash and Rob Huff - the latter of whom suffered a puncture while running third - in quick succession and began to close on the frontrunners.

With one lap to run Muller was all over Michelisz's rear, but despite his best efforts the Hungarian held on to clinch the final spot on the podium.

Monteiro never let Muller get away and finished just three tenths down the road in fifth.

Tom Coronel came through from 12th to finish a relatively lonely sixth, while Freddy Barth sealed seventh after a late pass on Nash.

The Briton was on the defensive throughout the race, and eventually wound up eighth, with Marc Basseng and Stefano D'Aste both less than one second down the road.

Race one winner Tom Chilton lost ground at the start and could only capture 11th, which only came after a frantic late fight with Darryl O'Young.

Tarquini's victory helped Honda secure this year's manufacturers' title, which it contested exclusively with Lada.

Results - 13 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                23m40.401s
 2.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW             +2.434s
 3.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda             +4.099s
 4.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet           +4.606s
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                   +4.941s
 6.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                +7.735s
 7.  Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW           +14.165s
 8.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet       +17.865s
 9.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT           +18.746s
10.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                 +19.234s
11.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet          +20.858s
12.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW               +22.239s
13.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet       +24.265s
14.  Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT            +24.436s
15.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT            +31.098s
16.  James Thompson      Lada                   +32.650s
17.  Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet         +32.794s
18.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                   +47.352s
19.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT           +47.553s
20.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT             +1 lap

Retirements:

     Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet        10 laps
     Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT      9 laps
     Charles Ng          Engstler BMW             6 laps
     Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW             2 laps

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Sonoma WTCC: Tom Chilton claims first victory
Next article RML to build Chevrolets for new World Touring Car rules

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe