Andy Priaulx leads with a margin

A crowd of 32,000 attended an exciting weekend in Brands Hatch, as the Kent racetrack hosted the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s 17th and 18th rounds. In two close races all the four manufacturers who take part in the series had reasons to rejoice.

Chevrolet claimed their sixth victory of the season with Alain Menu who led from lights to flag starting from the pole position. The Swiss driver resisted strong pressure from James Thompson’s Alfa Romeo and became the first man to win four races this year. The third podium position went to Colin Turkington of Team RAC, on his first WTCC appearance.

BMW took their revenge in Race 2, when double world champion Andy Priaulx grabbed his first WTCC victory on his home soil from BMW Team Italy-Spain’s Félix Porteiro. Robert Huff of Chevrolet completed the podium.

These results meant that Andy Priaulx moved back into the championship lead, with a margin of twelve points ahead of fellow BMW driver Augusto Farfus who remained scoreless in the weekend.

SEAT did not achieve any podiums, but two solid finishes in the points at the wheel of his turbo-diesel León, enabled Yvan Muller to climb to third in the drivers’ championship, only two points behind Farfus and one ahead of Jörg Müller.

The championship will resume for round 19 and 20 at Monza, Italy, on October 6th and 7th.