Rob Huff has moved into the joint lead of the championship after winning race two at Sonoma Raceway after team-mate Yvan Muller was given a drive-through penalty whilst leading the race.
Stefano D’Aste started from pole position in the Wiechers-Sport BMW with Mehdi Bennani’s Proteam BMW in second and Franz Engstler third on the grid. The three BMW drivers got away well from the standing start, with Norbert Michelisz launching up to fourth in the Zengõ Motorsport BMW with Yvan Muller launching from eighth to fifth in the Chevrolet Cruze.
D’Aste’s lead lasted less than a lap before the Italian spun out handing the lead to Mehdi Bennani, whilst Yvan Muller picked off Norbert Michelisz for what was now third position.
At Turn 2 on the second lap, Fernando Monje, who’d had a poor start in the SUNRED SEAT León WTCC crashed out heavily and remained there for the remainder of the race.
On lap four, Mehdi Bennani spun out of the lead at Turn 7, which gave the lead to Franz Engstler, albeit briefly, with Yvan Muller making contact with Franz Engstler down into the carousel on the next lap which spun the German out of the lead and promoted the two Chevrolet drivers to first and second.
The safety car was brought out as Mehdi Bennani’s stricken BMW was recovered, but soon after the green flag waved, the stewards served the Championship leader a drive-through penalty for spinning around Engstler, which handed Rob Huff the lead ahead of Norbert Michelisz and SEAT’s Gabriele Tarquini.
On lap 11, Pepe Oriola’s SEAT and Charles Ng’s BMW made contact at Turn 7, both cutting the corner but Ng’s rear-bumper being knocked loose for which he would later receive a mechanical black flag, which became a black flag and disqualification after he failed to serve it.
Huff held off Michelisz who fought the Chevrolet-driver hard for the final few laps to take the win, and move up to 315 points in the Championship and tie with Yvan Muller Iin the standings, after Muller could only manage to recover to 14th.
Alain Menu finished fourth and salvaged some points to keep 48 points behind his two team-mates going to the next round at Suzuka, Japan.
