Priaulx seals title with race win
Andy Priaulx won his third World Touring Car Championship crown in perfect style with victory in the second race at Macau on Sunday
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
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