Photo: WTCC Media

Pepe Oriola leads the independents’ trophy points

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Pepe Oriola left his home race with the lead of the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy after winning his class in race one and is just three points ahead of race two independents’ winner Stefano D’Aste.

The Spanish driver qualified in fourth place for the first race and lost just two spots to the Chevrolet duo of Rob Huff and Alain Menu to claim his second career win in the independents’ category. Oriola went on to finish seventh overall and fourth in class in race two, which was enough to keep the SUNRED driver equipped with the latest SEAT Sport 1.6 Turbo engine in the lead of the standings.

Wiechers-Sport’s Stefano D’Aste was in contention for the overall victory in race two thanks in part to pole position on the reversed grid, but was soon closed down by Alain Menu’s Chevrolet, who first pushed D’Aste out of the way on Lap 6 at Turn 8 to take the lead before falling back behind and trying again on the next lap and executed a more steward-friendly pass.

Three laps later D’Aste was caught out by fluid on the track as were a number of other drivers including Menu just ahead of him.

“When I saw (Menu) go out I thought ‘what a mistake’,” said D’Aste. “Then I found myself immediately in the gravel in the back of him and I thought ‘oh no!'”.

“I think that I probably lost a little toe in the rear-left wheel…as I had a little too much oversteer so I thought it was better to stay in control and finish first of the independents,” added D’Aste who went on to finish in third behind Tom Coronel.

Pepe Oriola now leads the independents’ trophy with 31 points with D’Aste three points behind. A strong points scoring weekend for Hungarian driver Norbert Michelisz sees the Zengõ Motorsport driver in third just one point behind D’Aste, with Franz Engstler just two behind him.

A tough weekend for Alex MacDowall, who was joint points leader after Monza, saw the Bamboo Engineering driver drop to fifth in the category after scoring just two eighth place finishes in the Yokohama Trophy in Spain.