Augusto Farfus heads BMW 1-2

Augusto Farfus has bolstered his championship assault with victory in Sunday’s second race at Oschersleben. The Brazilian has continued the rich vein of form he showed prior to the long summer break.

Farfus started the race third behind the independent BMWs of Franz Engstler and Stefano D’Aste, and as expected the BMW connections worked in Farfus’ favour.

He moved into the lead at the first corner on lap 4, after pushing Engstler hard through the previous laps. He had earlier moved past D’Aste on into the first lap.

From that point onwards it was Farfus’ race to lose, despite a very fast Andy Priaulx being on his tail throughout much of the race.

Fresh from victory in the first race Priaulx again made a great start, this time from eighth. By lap four he had gotten past D’Aste for third, and began his pursuit of Engstler. He made his move on the German and began to chase down Farfus.

He found himself on the rear bumper of Farfus with an apparent performance advantage, but in light of the championship standings, as well as BMWs backing of Farfus, Priaulx was obliged to remain on the tail of the Brazilian throughout much of the race.

Had this been earlier in the season, or if Priaulx had a better chance of the 2009 title, the battle at the front would more than likely been much more hard fought.

Priaulx tailed Farfus through much of the race, and the BMW pair crossed the line ahead of Farfus’ championship protagonist Gabriele Tarquini.

D’Aste was issued with a drive through penalty relating to his car being worked on at the grid, after the deadline for such work had elapsed. He chose to serve the penalty very late in the allotted time, and had he crossed the line once more he would have been disqualified. Nevertheless, the penalty dropped him significantly down the order.

Jörg Müller drove an exceptional race to finish 4th, and was chased by fellow BMW driver Sergio Hernández. Müller has begun from the back of the grid after the heavy accident in the first race, and his team had done a fantastic job between the races to rebuild the car, and get it to perform like it did in race two.

Chevrolet’s Nicola Larini claimed 6th, ahead of a determined Yvan Muller. Having seen his championship assault stutter of late, Muller recovered from a disastrous race one to claim 2 valuable championship points. He was running 8th until he was allowed an easy pass by fellow SEAT driver Tom Coronel, who crossed the line in 8th at the lights.

The first corner saw a minor incident, as Alex Zanardi retired after he ran wide into the gravel after minor contact.

Engstler was unfortunate, he endured issues with his BMW midway through the race, and retired on lap 8.