Yvan Muller retains World Touring Car title despite Rob Huff winning Macau race two
Rob Huff won the final round of the World Touring Car Championship in Macau on Sunday, but it was not enough to prevent Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller capturing the title
Huff effectively needed to win the race, with Muller fifth place or lower, if he was going to snatch the championship.
Starting from third on the grid, Huff held the position on the run down to Lisboa - as Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) made a brilliant getaway from fourth to lead from SUNRED SEAT Michel Nykjaer, who lost momentum with a wild slide through Mandarin.
Huff was eager to get to the front and dived ahead of Nykjaer to take second place at Paiol on the opening lap before closing in on Coronel.
It took him just two laps to slash Coronel's advantage and, on the run down to Lisboa on lap three, Huff went around the outside of the Dutchman to seize the lead - shortly before the safety car came out to clear away Gary Kwok's damaged BMW after he had crashed at Mandarin.
The race restarted on lap seven and Huff instantly pulled out his advantage, but his title hopes were effectively gone as Muller was already up to fourth place - after overtaking Mehdi Bennani's Proteam BMW on lap three.
Muller then grabbed another position as he dived inside Nykjaer at Lisboa to secure third place - and another WTCC crown - on lap nine.
The top three positions remained unchanged until the chequered flag, with the man on the move in the closing stages being Gabriele Tarquini - who overtook Bennani for fifth on lap nine and then grabbed fourth off SUNRED team-mate Nykjaer on the final lap.
Results - 11 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 33m23.773s
2. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 4.680s
3. Yvan Muller Chevrolet + 8.695s
4. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT + 9.047s
5. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT + 10.718s
6. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 11.066s
7. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 12.241s
8. Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT + 15.126s
9. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW + 16.686s
10. Javier Villa Proteam BMW + 16.950s
11. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT + 19.640s
12. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet + 20.088s
13. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW + 22.457s
14. Charles Ng Engstler BMW + 39.267s
15. Joseph Merszei Engstler BMW + 1m02.249s
Retirements:
Philip Ma Proteam BMW 8 laps
Mak Ka Lok RPM BMW 7 laps
Filipe de Souza Corsa Chevrolet 6 laps
Gary Kwok Wiechers BMW 2 laps
Andre Couto SUNRED SEAT 1 lap
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