Photo: WTCC Media

Tom Coronel holds off Chevrolet for first win of 2011

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Tom Coronel held off three Chevrolets to take his first win of the season, and his first WTCC victory in three years at race two in Suzuka.

Tiago Monteiro and Fredy Barth didn’t make the start after the damage in race one.

Bamboo Engineering driver Darryl O’Young had a slow start from pole position whilst Coronel’s freshly repaired rear-wheel drive BMW charged into the lead from second on the grid.

O’Young was turned into a spin after he was tapped from behind by Gabriele Tarquini’s SR León. The Italian was later given a drive through penalty but pulled out of the race instead.

Coronel held the lead ahead of the two Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Rob Huff, with the Volvo of Robert Dahlgren in fourth ahead of race one winner Alain Menu.

Dahlgren made a dive around the outside of Huff for third on lap 11 but to no success, but lost drive four laps later relinquishing fourth place to Alain Menu. The Volvo driver found pace again and caught back up to Menu at the end of the race, making contact on lap 21 with Menu managing to stay on track and ahead and Dahlgren having to settle for fifth place.

Michel Nykjaer’s SUNRED León was the leading independent driver again after O’Young’s retirement in sixth, and had to fight off the Wiechers/WSR BMW 320 TC of Colin Turkington all race. Javier Villa finished third in the independents’ class behind them with the two indie points leaders Norbert Michelisz and Kristian Poulsen completing the top ten.

Yukinori Taniguchi was the top of the extended Japanese contingent in 14th, holding off Rally legend Toshi Arai’s Chevrolet to cross the line just three tenths of a second ahead.

Tom Coronel’s win is the first since October 2008, when the Dutch driver won in Japan at the Okayama circuit for SUNRED Engineering in the SEAT León, and the second win for a BMW this year, and quite incredibly only the third non-Chevrolet win in 20 races.

Yvan Muller now claws back three points on Rob Huff to take a 13 point lead heading to the next round in China, whilst Alain Menu remains mathematically in the title hunt after scoring 37 points today.

Tom Coronel is now a clear fourth place in the standings, 24 points ahead of Gabriele Tarquini with Tiago Monteiro’s disastrous weekend seeing the Portuguese driver now 74 points down on Coronel with 100 points remaining.

The Championship now heads to the Tianma circuit in Shanghai in two weeks time.