Farfus wins, Muller extends lead
Augusto Farfus won the second race in Japan, his first of the season, but retirements for Priaulx & Tarquini give Yvan Muller a massive lead in the championship going to the finale at Macau.
SEAT had the most work to do after race one, with repairs required for Tom Coronel, Fredy Barth and Tiago Monteiro. Monteiro and Barth had to start from the pitlane, whilst Coronel was able to take his grid spot of 21st, and put on a great run to finish in the points in ninth place.
The rain fell even more heavily during the break between races, so the second race was again started behind the safety car.
The green flag was waved on lap three, and Muller was quick to cause a scare, going wide whilst trying to hold on ahead of Andy Priaulx. Muller fell behind Priaulx for half a lap, before re-passing the Guernseyman, with team-mate Rob Huff following through on the next lap.
Soon after, disaster struck for Priaulx, aquaplaning behind the Chevrolet and sliding into the gravel and out of the race, just missing the Cruze of Huff.
Michel Nykjaer continued to lead, pulling out a gap on the fellow SEAT of Gabriele Tarquini, whilst Colin Turkington was passed by the other RBM BMW of Farfus on lap seven for third place. Just as he did, a stranded Kevin Chen brought out the first of two safety cars.
On the restart, Nykjaer pulled away again but lost control of the SEAT shortly after, sliding out of the lead, rejoining back in ninth place. Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini assumed the lead, but one lap later, crashed out, and with it went his championship chances.
The race finished under another safety car, deployed as Henry Ho’s Sports & You BMW was recovered, stranded on the middle of the circuit.
Augusto Farfus had assumed the lead after Tarquini’s crash, and went on to win his first race of the season from 2009 BTCC champion Colin Turkington in a BMW 1-2.
Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller finished third, leading team-mates Huff and Menu, and moves up to 295 points in the championship, 37 points ahead of Andy Priaulx with just 50 to be had at the season finale at Macau.
Gabriele Tarquini and Rob Huff are now unable to win the championship, now 53 and 62 points adrift respectively.
Robert Dahlgren was sixth in the Volvo’s fourth appearance of the season, with Nykjaer recovering to be the best of the rookies in seventh.
Darryl O’Young took bamboo-engineering’s second win of the day in the Yokohama independents category, and closes the gap to Sergio Hernandez in the trophy standings.
The season finale takes place in three weeks at Macau.
