Photo: WTCC Media

Menu holds off Turkington for win in Shanghai

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Chevrolet driver Alain Menu held off the BMW of Colin Turkington to take his fifth win of the 2011 season, whilst Rob Huff cuts the points gap to Yvan Muller by three points.

Yvan Muller made up one spot at the start as the front two rows held formation on the rolling start, with the Frenchman soon overtaking Gabriele Tarquini for fifth at the beginning of lap two.

The Italian SUNRED driver soon suffered with problems with his León, pulling into the pits six laps later after having dropped outside of the top ten.

Mehdi Bennani showed his fast pace in the warm-uo was no coincidence, driving up to seventh place in the Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC was the third place finisher in the independents’ trophy.

Colin Turkington battled Rob Huff’s Chevrolet hard in the early stages of the race, attempting to pass Huff on lap four but was successfully held off as Huff aggressively defended the position. 10 laps later however, with the tyres on the front-wheel drive Chevrolet Cruze fading, Turkington dived up the inside at Turn 1 to take second place and set about chasing down race leader Alain Menu.

On Lap 18, Norbert Michelisz in the Zengö Motorsport BMW was passed for fourth place by Yvan Muller. The Hungarian driver lost two further places in quick session to Tom Coronel and independents’ rival Kristian Poulsen. Michelisz struggled for pace in the last seven laps of the race, dropping to 11th overall and fifth in the independents’ class, extending Poulsen’s lead in the trophy to 15 points.

Turkington was riding the tail of Alain Menu in the final laps threatening the Chevrolet driver for the victory, but the yellow flags were out on the final lap as Yukinori Tanguchi had crashed out in the independent Chevrolet Cruze and was stuck in the middle of the track.

Menu’s win keeps the Swiss driver in the title hunt, but will need Huff and Muller to hit trouble in race two to leave Shanghai with a mathematical chance of winning the Championship in Macau, whilst Huff closes by three points on Muller in the standings.

Huff starts on pole position for race two with Gabriele Tarquini sharing the front row, with Fredy Barth and Yvan Muller on row two.