Priaulx seals title with race win

Priaulx led away cleanly from pole position at the start, but it was title rival James Thompson who made the best start from third as he stormed past Nicola Larini and Tiago Monteiro, through into second.

Larini was disappointed with his getaway though, and he felt that it cost him any chance of victory.

"I am a little bit upset because I lost my race at the start," said the Italian. "The red light was never going off so I had clutch trouble and I lost speed at the start."

Thompson showed he meant business as he pushed Priaulx hard in the early stages, even nudging into the back of the lead BMW at the Melco hairpin on the first lap.

But Priaulx was steadily able to extend his advantage to give himself a bit of a lead of Thompson, who himself was being shadowed by Larini.

In fact, as Priaulx pulled clear at the front, Thompson found himself as the man under pressure. On lap five, Larini had a look at Lisboa and the pair appeared to make light contact on the exit of the corner.

Their battling allowed the SEAT of Monteiro to close in and the three were soon fighting it out bumper-to-bumper for position.

Larini made his decisive move for second at the start of lap seven when he got a good slipstream down the main straight and dived inside Thompson at Lisboa - before almost immediately pulling clear.

Thompson then faced intense pressure from Monteiro, with the Portuguese driver having a serious look around the outside at Lisboa on lap eight but having to eventually abort the attempt despite getting alongside the Alfa Romeo.

That was to be Monteiro's best chance, as he just followed Thompson home at the end of the nine-lap race.

"To be the only man in the last race of the year to challenge Andy is fantastic," said Thompson. "We have done an exceptional job to score as many points as we have.

"It's disappointing to miss out on second in the championship by not finishing second, but if someone had said at the start of the year that we would finish third I would have been happy."

All of his was of no concern to Priaulx, however, who took his third consecutive world title with victory over Larini by 0.183 seconds.

"To be first, first you have to finish," said the triple world champion. "I am speechless. It is an amazing feeling, it hasn't sunk in yet.

"It is never easy. To be honest, every race is the toughest of my life. Clearly we had a technical disadvantage (to the diesel SEATs) this weekend, but we found our way through.

"The car was reliable and that made the difference. I didn't know what to expect comng into this weekend but I knew something special could happen if we kept it on the road."

Pos   Driver               Car                 Time
 1.   Andy Priaulx         BMW 320si           23:19.249
 2.   Nicola Larini        Chevrolet Lacetti      +0.842
 3.   James Thompson       Alfa Romeo 156         +5.886
 4.   Tiago Monteiro       SEAT Leon              +6.069
 5.   Tom Coronel          SEAT Leon             +10.634
 6.   Rickard Rydell       SEAT Leon             +11.731
 7.   Felix Porteiro       BMW 320si             +13.225
 8.   Colin Turkington     BMW 320si             +13.823
 9.   Fredrik Ekblom       BMW 320si             +14.614
10.   Luca Rangoni         BMW 320si             +22.280
11.   Duncan Huisman       BMW 320si             +22.707
12.   Stefano D'aste       BMW 320si             +23.793
13.   P-Y Corthals         SEAT Leon             +25.662
14.   Gabriele Tarquini    SEAT Leon TDI         +26.369
15.   Sergio Hernandez     BMW 320si             +27.467
16.   Franz Engstler       BMW 320i              +30.843
17.   Carl Rosenblad       BMW 320si             +36.505
18.   Maurizio Ceresoli    SEAT Leon             +37.092
19.   Miguel Freitas       Alfa Romeo 156        +42.714
20.   Jorg Muller          BMW 320si              +1 lap
21.   Alain Menu           Chevrolet Lacetti     +2 laps
22.   Jordi Gene           SEAT Leon TDI         +3 laps

Not classified

      David Louie          BMW 320i               5 laps
      Alessandro Zanardi   BMW 320si              3 laps
      Andrey Romanov       BMW 320i                1 lap
      Robert Huff          Chevrolet Lacetti       1 lap
      Yvan Muller          SEAT Leon TDI             DNS
      Augusto Farfus       BMW 320si                 DNS

Fastest lap: Tarquini, 2:32.840 on lap 6