Hernandez takes first ever WTCC win!

Sergio Hernandez has won his first ever World Touring Car Championship race. The 25 year old driver from the east coast of Spain started from fourth on the grid and took an early lead, only not to give it away anymore. The other BMW drivers put on a great display of how not to work together.

At the start Felix Porteiro, who started from second, lead into the first corner. Sergio Hernandez soon followed him passed Yvan Muller and took second.

At the end of the first lap race one winner Alex Zanardi passed Rickard Rydell as they were going over the main straight. But into the first corner, Rydell thought back and kept hold of his position.

Andy Priaulx, who started from nineteenth, had already worked his way up and passed Tom Coronel for tenth position. Later on in lap two he passed Vito Postiglione for nineth and was now right behind his team mate Jörg Müller.

On lap three Zanardi did make it through passed Rydell, as Hernandez started putting pressure on leader Felix Porteiro. A lap later he makes it through exiting the first corner. Porteiro looses speed and has to give up two more places to Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro.

Lap 4 saw Jörg Müller and Andy Priaulx pass Rickard Rydell as well. A couple of corners later Müller hits Zanardi on his rear wheel, and the Italian slides wide. He manages to stay ahead of Rydell and looses only two places. Müller receives a warning for his actions.

A lap later Gabriele Tarquini tries to overtake Felix Porteiro, but out brakes himself. He loses two places to Müller and Priaulx, and as he comes back on the racing line, he hits the side of Zanardi’s car and pushes the Italian into the barriers. Zanardi has to end his race on the spot. The incident is under investigation by the Stewards.

SEAT has shown great team work over the past years, and on lap six BMW drivers Priaulx and Müller showed that they have never heard of such a thing in their team. Instead of working together to close the gap to Porteiro, they decided to drive in each other wheels, hit each other and subsequently let Rydell and Tarquini passed.

At the front, Hernandez was lucky there were no other cars around to give him a hard time. With a comfortable margin he manages to drive his car to the finish line and takes the win ahead of Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro.

Felix Porteiro finishes the race in fourth and scores valuable points for the independents championship. Gabriele Tarquini and Rickard Rydell finish in fifth and sixth ahead of the BMW’s of Müller and Priaulx.