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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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