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Farfus wins race, Tarquini takes title

Augusto Farfus won an incident-filled final round of the World Touring Car Championship in Macau on Sunday, but all eyes were on Gabriele Tarquini who clinched the drivers' title

Farfus led away cleanly from pole position and held an advantage throughout the early stages of the race from BMW team-mate Jorg Muller, who himself was fighting off the close attention of SEAT duo Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro. Behind them, Tarquini had moved up fifth on lap seven when Jordi Gene slowed.

The battle at the front was interrupted by a safety car on lap three, when Tom Boardman crashed in the Solitude Esses, and then the race was red-flagged at the end of lap eight when there was a spectacular crash at the R Bend final corner.

Felix Porteiro ran wide and hit the barriers, before his car was swiped by Franz Engstler's BMW. Engstler's car was then left stationary in the middle of the track where it was collected heavily by local driver Andre Couto.

With debris all over the track there was no option but to halt the race and, after a brief delay, it was decided that the event would not be restarted.

It meant that Tarquini's fifth placed finish was enough for him to take the WTCC crown, with his SEAT team doing enough to take the manufacturers' title.

Tarquini had been suffering an engine misfire in the second race so was nervous about his chances of taking the title if there had been a restart - so was relieved that his accidents earlier in the weekend and the late drama had not hit his title chances.

"It is fantastic," said Tarquini. "I had some crashes in practice and qualifying, which isn't the best way to approach the weekend in Macau, but the team did a fantastic job to rebuild the car."

Pos Driver                     Car             Time/Gap
 1. Augusto Farfus             BMW             22m20.166s
 2. Jorg Muller                BMW                 0.801s
 3. Yvan Muller                SEAT                1.201s
 4. Tiago Monteiro             SEAT                1.980s
 5. Gabriele Tarquini          SEAT                3.815s
 6. Jordi Gene                 SEAT                5.018s
 7. Nicola Larini              Chevrolet           5.359s
 8. Robert Huff                Chevrolet           5.895s
 9. Alex Zanardi               BMW                 6.167s
10. Rickard Rydell             SEAT                6.712s
11. Sergio Hernandez           BMW                 7.764s
12. Felix Porteiro             BMW                 8.290s
13. Andy Priaulx               BMW                 8.583s
14. Franz Engstler             BMW                 9.390s
15. Norbertu Taniguchi         BMW                10.635s
16. Takayuki Aoki              BMW                12.819s
17. Andre Couto                SEAT               13.531s
18. Kit Meng Lei               BMW                24.275s
19. Henry Ho                   BMW                27.175s
20. Jo Merszei                 BMW                27.530s
21. Alain Menu                 Chevrolet           2 laps

Retirements

    Tom Coronel                SEAT                4 laps
    Tom Boardman               SEAT                2 laps
    Kristian Poulsen           BMW                 2 laps

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