WTCC Nordschleife: Yvan Muller wins race two in tense finish

Lopez had spent much of the race bottled up in the lower half of the top 10 until being released when Ma Qing Hua spun on the final lap.

He then powered past the works Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro on the back straight to arrive in his team-mate's mirrors as the chequered flag flew.

Monteiro led most of the first lap from reverse-grid pole, and he survived an early challenge from Muller before succumbing at the end of the lap.

Fellow front-row starter Tom Coronel's ROAL Chevrolet was shuffled down the pack as Muller and Tarquini came through, soon to be followed by the semi-works Citroen of Mehdi Bennani and the factory C-Elysees of Ma, Lopez and Sebastien Loeb.

Loeb survived an early contact with Rob Huff's Lada as the field entered the Nordschleife on the opening lap, but he was relegated to a spectator role as the battle unfolded ahead.

The gaps ebbed and flowed as Muller initially gave himself some breathing space before the Hondas caught him again at the beginning of the final lap.

Lopez was harrying Ma, who in turn was bullying Bennani, as the battle for fourth caught the battle for the lead.

Ma went by Bennani on the run to Tiergarten at the end of the penultimate lap, and Lopez then barged through at Turn 1.

Still under pressure, Ma went into a spin at the exit of Aremberg and slewed sideways across the track, shedding enough speed for the final impact with the barrier to be relatively gentle.

Lopez narrowly avoided his team-mate's accident and pressed on to join the battle for the lead.

By Dottinger Hohe he was on Tarquini's bootlid and slipstreamed past up the straight, gaining enough momentum to pass Monteiro as well and arrive on Muller's tail as they rejoined the grand prix loop.

Confounding expectations that the field would stretch out on the long lap, the top four were separated by just seven tenths of a second, and ninth-place finisher Jaap van Lagen crossed the finishing line just 10 seconds after the winner.

RACE TWO RESULT

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Laps	Gap
1	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	3	26m17.149s
2	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	3	0.173s
3	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	3	0.539s
4	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	3	0.694s
5	Sebastien Loeb	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	3	3.402s
6	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	3	4.062s
7	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	3	5.365s
8	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	3	8.865s
9	Jaap van Lagen	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	3	10.000s
10	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	3	18.077s
11	Sabine Schmitz	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	3	32.769s
12	Gregoire Demoustier	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Chevrolet	3	33.311s
-	Ma Qinghua	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	2	Retirement
-	Stefano D'Aste	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	1	Retirement
-	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	0	Retirement
-	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	0	Not started
-	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	0	Not started

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Jose Maria Lopez	177
2	Sebastien Loeb	127
3	Yvan Muller	126
4	Tiago Monteiro	73
5	Ma Qinghua	64
6	Norbert Michelisz	61
7	Gabriele Tarquini	58
8	Tom Chilton	44
9	Mehdi Bennani	40
10	Hugo Valente	31
11	Tom Coronel	23
12	Stefano D'Aste	16
13	Rob Huff	9
14	James Thompson	6
15	John Filippi	5
16	Rickard Rydell	3
17	Jaap van Lagen	2
18	Gregoire Demoustier	2
19	Sabine Schmitz	1