Tarquini leads SEAT's race two sweep
| By Steven English |
Sunday, March 8th 2009, 19:51 GMT |
 Gabriele Tarquini took victory for SEAT this afternoon as the Spanish manufacturer utterly dominated the wet second World Touring Car race at Curitiba.
The Italian started fifth but was quickly among the BMWs and picked off Augusto Farfus, Sergio Hernandez and Andy Priaulx in the first four laps. He then dispatched pole sitter Felix Porteiro's independent BMW and romped off to an almost unchallenged victory.
His SEAT Sport teammates followed him through the crowd of BMWs and by just the eighth lap, Tarquini led from Rickard Rydell, Jordi Gene and Yvan Muller - despite BMW filling the first two rows of the grid. The SEATs remained in formation for the remainding laps to score an emphatic 1-2-3-4 in both races.
The BMWs by comparison struggled seriously for grip on the wet surface and by far the best of them was Jorg Muller, who started only 19th but was the fastest car on the track as it dried and passed every one of his teammates to finish fifth.
Farfus was sixth, ahead of Porteiro who kept Tom Coronel at bay to claim his second independent victory of the weekend. Priaulx and Hernandez dropped to ninth and 10th places after running at the front in the first few laps.
Alain Menu's Chevrolet was another to charge through the field as the circuit dried out, setting the fastest lap on his way to 11th place from 21st on the grid. Pos Driver Car Time
1. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 27:44.649
2. Rickard Rydell SEAT +0.810
3. Jordi Gene SEAT +5.869
4. Yvan Muller SEAT +7.157
5. Jorg Muller BMW +9.916
6. Augusto Farfus BMW +11.759
7. Felix Porteiro BMW +13.721
8. Tom Coronel SEAT +14.216
9. Andy Priaulx BMW +17.682
10. Sergio Hernandez BMW +18.144
11. Alain Menu Chevrolet +19.046
12. Tiago Monteiro SEAT +23.097
13. Rob Huff Chevrolet +23.376
14. Alex Zanardi BMW +27.315
15. Nicola Larini Chevrolet +27.694
16. Frank Engstler BMW +29.859
17. Jaap van Lagen Lada +34.424
18. Kristian Poulsen BMW +35.860
19. Tom Boardman SEAT +36.601
20. Stefano D'Aste BMW +36.992
21. George Tanev BMW +48.908
22. Kirill Ladygin Lada +49.709
23. Viktor Shapovalov Lada +1:13.069
Fastest lap Menu 1:34.837
|
