Alain Menu dominates Algarve World Touring Car race two

Running in the colours, overalls and helmet design of comic book racing driver Michel Vaillante, the Swiss racer grabbed the lead from polesitter Pepe Oriola (Tuenti SEAT) at Turn 1 and built up a six-second lead within three laps.

Once assured that championship leader Yvan Muller and the third factory Chevrolet of Rob Huff would not mount a challenge in the closing laps, Menu eased his pace to complete a comfortable 3.2s victory over Oriola.

"I changed the car a lot after race one, and I was much happier with it," said Menu, who traded his usual spectacles for sunglasses on the podium. "I wanted to really push in the early laps, as I wasn't sure if my team-mates could pass everyone and catch me towards the end.

"It is fantastic to wear the colours of Michel Vaillante this weekend. I'm pleased with reaction from people and the win is the icing on the cake. However, the win is 25 points towards my championship and it's now back to reality for the rest of the season."

Oriola executed another mature performance and secured the Independents' Trophy victory in addition to taking second overall. The 17-year-old slipped to third behind Tom Coronel's ROAL Motorsport BMW on the opening lap, but recovered the position at the Turn 6 hairpin on lap two.

Despite the anticipated advantage of reduced tyre-wear from rear-wheel drive, Dutchman Coronel was unable to get back on terms with Oriola.

The drama of the race was provided by a tough scrap for fourth, contested between Lukoil SEAT driver Gabriele Tarquini and Chevrolet's title protagonists Muller and Huff.

Muller was bottled up behind Tarquini for several laps, but picked up a strong slipstream from the 2009 world champion's SEAT across the start-finish line on lap seven.

Forced to defend on the inside into Turn 1, Tarquini's line for the corner was compromised. The Italian bounced onto two wheels after taking an excessive amount of kerb and Muller immediately snatched fourth place on the exit of the corner. Under braking for Turn 2, Huff's attempt to emulate his title rival ended in contact when Tarquini again covered his line.

The SEAT was knocked askew in the incident and Tarquini pitted at the conclusion of the lap to retire with accident damage. Muller skidded sideways on the exit of Turn 2, allowing Huff to steal fourth place.

Muller struggled for pace in the closing laps and came under pressure from Coronel's ROAL Motorsport team-mate Alberto Cerqui. The pair had made slight contact on lap six, but the feisty Superstars champion ran out of laps to make a passing attempt.

Muller still leads the drivers' standings on 245 points, 18 ahead of Huff, with Menu third on 210. Coronel is top non-factory Chevrolet driver on 140, six points clear of fifth-placed Tarquini.

Results - 11 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet            21m34.180s
 2.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            + 3.200s
 3.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               + 5.160s
 4.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet              + 6.961s
 5.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              + 8.280s
 6.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               + 8.626s
 7.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet      + 15.007s
 8.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT           + 15.874s
 9.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW          + 16.264s
10.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW             + 18.128s
11.  James Thompson        TMS Lada              + 19.832s
12.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW             + 23.542s
13.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT   + 28.326s
14.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW          + 28.581s
15.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford            + 30.552s
16.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT           + 50.602s
17.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet        + 1 lap
18.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW            + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT              8 laps
     James Nash            Arena Ford               7 laps
     Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW              3 laps
     Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT      2 laps