First win of season for Coronel in final race at Suzuka
Tom Coronel absorbed race-long pressure from Yvan Muller to pick up his first win of the season in the second of today's World Touring Car Championship races at Suzuka
The ROAL Motorsport BMW driver took advantage of a poor start by polesitter Darryl O'Young to take the lead going into the first corner, and quickly found himself at the head of a queue comprised of the three lead works Chevrolets and Robert Dahlgren's Polestar Volvo - the latter having been hastily patched back together after crashing in race one.
Muller led the pursuing pack, and while he was never more than a couple of feet from the rear of Coronel's car, he never had a real opportunity to pass. Rob Huff was similarly secure in third, but there was a bit more action in the battle for fourth between race one winner Alain Menu and Dahlgren.
Menu had taken fourth from the Swede early on but Dahlgren fought back, the scrap culminating in a brave attempt to run side-by-side with Menu through the Esses. Both managed to stay on the track, although Dahlgren was unable to make the move stick.
O'Young paid a heavy price for his slow getaway when he was swallowed up by the first couple of rows in the run down to the first corner and then tagged by Gabriele Tarquini, putting him into the Turn 1 gravel and prompting a brief spell behind the safety car.
O'Young managed to get going again, albeit well out of contention, while Tarquini was dealt a drive-through for his part in the accident.
Race one podium finisher Michel Nykjaer was best of the independent drivers in sixth.
Race 2 Results - 23 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 21m10.854s 2. Yvan Muller Chevrolet + 0.558s 3. Rob Huff Chevrolet + 0.840s 4. Alain Menu Chevrolet + 1.576s 5. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo + 2.057s 6. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT + 7.397s 7. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW + 7.730s 8. Javier Villa Proteam BMW + 8.292s 9. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW + 8.606s 10. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW + 8.901s 11. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 9.477s 12. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT + 15.744s 13. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT + 22.668s 14. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet + 23.263s 15. Toshi Arai Chevrolet + 23.541s 16. Masaki Kano KK BMW + 25.577s 17. Hiroki Yoshimoto SUNRED SEAT + 26.926s 18. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 33.610s 19. Charles Ng Engstler BMW + 34.092s Retirements: Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT 11 laps Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet 1 lap Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 0 laps Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT 0 laps
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