Tom Coronel takes first WTCC win

Tom Coronel has won the Independents Trophy several times, and now he has taken his first ever WTCC victory. At a special place for the Dutchman, as it was at the track he already has had many successes, in Formula 3 and Formula Nippon. The win wasn’t an easy one for Coronel. He first had to fight hard with Tiago Monteiro, who had taken the lead after the start, and in the latter laps of the race it was Augusto Farfus who challenged the Dutchman hard for first.

After the first two laps, the second race looked to turn out a walk-over for SEAT. There were four SEAT’s at the front. Tiago Monteiro lead ahead of Tom Coronel, Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell. The first BMW-driver, Augusto Farfus, was unable to keep up with the pace.

But by the time Tom Coronel succesfully challenged Monteiro for the lead, Independents driver Stefano D’Aste had already passed Farfus and was trying to overtake Rickard Rydell. The track was drying, and the SEAT’s started to struggle. Tom Coronel was the only SEAT driver with slicks on the front and wets on the rear, and that gave him the opportunity to create a gap.

As Stefano D’Aste made his move for fourth over Rickard Rydell, the Proteam-driver outbraked himself and had to go through the travel. It was the start of a dramatic race, as D’Aste dropped back behind his main rival in the fight over the Independents Trophy, team mate Sergio Hernandez.

In the latter part of the race, the Proteam drivers had worked their way up to fifth and sixth, D’Aste did a do or die move on Hernandez, but braked to late and hit the innocent Monteiro in the side. D’Aste’s car was to damaged to continue, as Hernandez went on to take third overall.

In the scrimmage that followed by the incident, James Thompson profited most. He took fourth place at the finish line. Robert Huff passed Yvan Muller for fifth. Muller had to settle for sixth, but as Tarquini failed to finish, the Frenchman gained another 3 points over his rival, and now has a 14 points lead.

Andy Priaulx held third position up untill then, but the British BMW driver made an error and ended his race in the gravel trap. That left Augusto Farfus as the only BMW factory driver in the points, as Zanardi had already crashed out, Müller was in the gravel as well and Porteiro was in nineth. The Brazilian driver had found the pace again and was already up into second. With over a second a lap he was catching Coronel, but as had catched the Dutchman, he could not make his faster pace count. The Brazilian tried hard, but Coronel was able to defend his position with succes, and thus took his first WTCC win.