10th to first for Yvan Muller at Donington Park
Yvan Muller won the second race of the day from tenth on the grid at Donington Park, but is under investigation for the pass on team-mate Rob Huff early in the race. Huff finished second with Franz Engstler taking a career best third.
In the dry conditions, the BMWs had the best start as expected, with Michel Nykjaer swamped off the front row by the fast starting BMW drivers.
The order was Tom Coronel, Javier Villa, Franz Engstler and Colin Turkington at the end of the first lap, with disaster behind for the SUNREDs, as the three cars of Michel Nykjaer, Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini went three-wide. The end result was Nykjaer off into the gravel, broken suspension for Monteiro and Tarquini up in to sixth place behind the leading Chevrolet of Alain Menu.
On lap two, Tom Coronel went wide at McLean’s battling Javier Villa, allowing the young Spaniard into the lead. Colin Turkington was also spun out by Tarquini at the Melbourne Hairpin, dropping down the order.
A mistake by Javier Villa at Coppice saw the Proteam BMW driver passed by Franz Engstler and Alain Menu. Tarquini then made contact with Villa heading into the Esses which turned the BMW into Alain Menu’s Chevrolet, which was sent through the corner losing several positions. Villa retired with broken rear suspension.
The key race incident was between Rob Huff and Yvan Muller as they were working their way up the order. Huff had passed the Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet of Darryl O’Young, and Yvan Muller attempted to do the same at Goddards, late braking down the inside. The Frenchman overshot and slammed into the back of Rob Huff. Huff managed to hold on to the inevitable slide, but the loss of pace saw Muller move up ahead of his British team-mate.
On lap five, Muller blasted through into the lead, passing Gabriele Tarquini around the outside at Redgate for second and taking Franz Engstler, also around the outside on the same lap as the Esses. Rob Huff followed his team-mate through and was in second place, where he stayed for the remainder of the race.
Robert Dahlgren was battling with Alain Menu in the late stages for fifth place, but had to settle for sixth, a great accomplishment after starting 20th after requiring repairs after the incident with Kristian Poulsen in race one.
Poulsen and Michelisz were caught up in controversy as well and are under investigation. The Dane had tried to pass Michelisz into Goddards, but Michelisz spun around after contact and both BMW’s made front-end contact. Michelisz went on to finish with his damaged BMW in 12th place.
Franz Engstler finished third and took the independents’ victory.
Muller’s win, currently provisional, will close him to within 15 points of Championship leader Rob Huff going into the next round of the Championship at Oschersleben.
