Photo: WTCC Media

Tarquini wins title in red flagged finalé

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Gabriele Tarquini has won the championship in a race won by Augusto Farfus, which was stopped early due to a massive collision between Franz Engstler & Andre Couto.

At the same time, it’s been confirmed Yvan Muller will leave SEAT for Chevrolet in 2010.

Yvan Muller had moved up to third at the start, and challenged the BMW’s of Augusto Farfus and Jorg Muller throughout the race – but Tarquini, who had dropped to 9th at the start, managed to work his way up to fifth place to secure himself his first World Touring Car Championship.

In a race strewn with incident, with a safety car to recover a stricken Tom Boardman, and later Nicola Larini being taken out by a late breaking charge by Alessandro Zanardi on lap 8, the worst was yet to come.

On lap 9, Felix Porteiro span and was collected by Franz Engstler, both cars making contact on the drivers side. With both cars coming to a rest with moderate damage, waved yellows were quickly deployed – but one off racer Andre Couto, who had retired in race one, came through at full speed and made heavy contact with Engstler’s car.

A long recovery of drivers and cars took place as the race was held under a red flag – with Yvan Muller’s only chance of claiming the title being a loss of places or retirement for Tarquini.

After 30 minutes, the race was declared complete on countback at 7 laps, which gives Tarquini the drivers championship, and SEAT the manufacturers championship for 2009.

Prior to the race, Chevrolet boss Eric Neve strongly hinted that they’ll be watching Yvan Muller closely in the race with an announcement on their drivers expected today – effectively confirming as suspected previously, that Yvan Muller will head a charge for the GM marque in 2010 after four years with SEAT Sport.

Due to the red flag, the results were declared on count back to the end of lap 7 – which means Larini is still classified in 7th, and Felix Porteiro won the independents class despite being in the medical centre when the podium ceremony took place.