Yvan Muller:”I was not at the top of my game”

Despite still having a slim mathematical chance to win the 2014 World Touring Car Championship, Citroën star Yvan Muller is convinced the race for the title is over. The Frenchman is not happy with his performances throughout the year and he knows that team-mate José María López only has to score 17 points this weekend to make sure he is crowned World Champion.

“The season is over for the title, with two races to the end,” said Muller to TouringCarTimes. “My performances were not as they should have been, I was not at the top of my game, I lost a few points along the way. I have to make sure this does not happen in the last two races and carry that strong form into next year to be ready for the 2015 challenge.”

Although he takes the blame on himself, Muller concedes that bad luck has been a factor which led to the current situation in the championship:

“Of course bad luck has played its part. Four retirements cost me a lot of points and without them the championship would have looked different. He [José María López] only failed to score once and that cost me too much. Another factor was that when I retired I was ahead of him, which meant that not only did I lose points, but I also gave extra points to him!”

Muller said it was clear after the last race in Shanghai that he was not going to win the championship. In spite of this, he made sure it was clear that he does not blame team-mate Sébastien Loeb for the accident which knocked him out of Race 2 in China:

“I gave up on my hopes in Shanghai, but I want it to be clear that I am not blaming Sébastien [Loeb] for what was clearly a racing incident. Things are absolutely fine between us and I fully rate that as one of the things which can happen when you are racing.”

With 110 points at stake, Yvan Muller would have to make up for a 93-points gap from his Argentinian team-mate to be crowned champion.