Suzuka WTCC: Tom Coronel defeats Mehdi Bennani in BMW win battle

Tiago Monteiro completed the podium despite cruising across the line, with works Honda team-mate Gabriele Tarquini - whom he picked off at half distance - missing out by just seven tenths of a second.

Newly-crowned champion Yvan Muller and race one winner Norbert Michelisz were both victims of the starting melee.

The pair made contact in the squeeze away from the line, with Muller hitting the barriers and Michelisz suffering a race-ending puncture.

That was in contrast to front-row men Bennani and Coronel, who maintained their advantage off the grid and began pulling away from the chasing pack even while squabbling over the lead in their BMWs.

Coronel looked to Bennani's inside at Turn 1 almost without fail over the first half of the race, only for the Moroccan to stick it out around the outside each time and claim the line for Turn 2.

That finally reversed on lap 17 however as Coronel this time lunged at the second right-hander, catching Bennani by surprise and allowing the Dutchman to slip into a lead he would convert for his fourth WTCC win.

Monteiro was likewise able to pull away from Tarquini, although the gap was all but wiped out at the flag as he eased off.

Tarquini held on to fourth ahead of Chevrolet pair James Nash and Tom Chilton, while Charles Ng got the better of 2012 champion Ron Huff in a fantastic battle for seventh.

It was even more fraught behind as Alex MacDowall, James Thompson, Marc Basseng, Stefano D'Aste. Darryl O'Young and Fernando Monje squabbled over the final points-paying positions.

Thompson held ninth going into the final lap, but was nudged out by Basseng and ended up dropping to 13th, just ahead of MacDowall.

D'Aste beat fellow BMW man O'Young to 10th by just 0.1s.

Masaki Kano, called up to replace the injured Franz Engstler, was the best of the Asian newcomers in 16th.

Results - 26 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                23m56.929s
 2.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW                +2.259s
 3.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda                      +9.935s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                     +10.732s
 5.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet          +11.438s
 6.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet             +11.802s
 7.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW              +13.762s
 8.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT              +14.088s
 9.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT              +23.300s
10.  Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                    +23.564s
11.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW                  +23.753s
12.  James Thompson      Lada                      +23.780s
13.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet          +24.249s
14.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT               +24.497s
15.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT              +24.739s
16.  Masaki Kano         Engstler BMW              +26.576s
17.  Yukinori Tanguchi   Wiechers BMW              +36.768s
18.  Jeronimo Badaraco   Son Veng Chevrolet        +54.197s
19.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                        +1 lap
20.  Kin Veng Ng         China Dragon Chevrolet      +1 lap
21.  Henry Ho            Engstler BMW               +3 laps

Retirements:

     Takuya Izawa        Honda                      19 laps
     Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT        16 laps
     Hiroki Yoshimoto    Nika Chevrolet             14 laps
     Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet           13 laps
     Ka Lok Mak          RPM BMW                    10 laps
     Felipe de Souza     China Dragon Chevrolet       1 lap
     Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda                  1 lap
     Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet               0 laps