Tarquini not apologising to Farfus

The pair made contact just before Curva Grande on the opening lap, and Farfus' BMW speared into the wall on the outside of the track before spinning back across the circuit and hitting the inside wall.

"Farfus moved towards me and I moved away," said Tarquini. "But I wasn't going to drive onto the grass because he's not my teammate.

"Overall it has been a fantastic weekend for SEAT, but personally I'm not so happy, especially as I had to retire in the second race after collision damage."

An angry Farfus went to the SEAT garages in the pitlane during the race, and the title-chasing Brazilian was still there after the race had finished.

"The grid position for race two was promising, as it should have given me the chance to close the gap to the front-runners in the championship," said the BMW driver. "The accident with Tarquini stopped me on this mission."

Farfus is 10 points behind joint championship leaders Andy Priaulx and Yvan Muller heading into the season finale at Macau, and he admitted that he is still upbeat about his championship chances.

"The good thing is that I still have a chance to win the title in Macau," he said. "Anything can happen there, as we all know."