Alain Menu takes a dominant race two win in Portimão

Alain Menu won the second race of the day at Portimão, passing the pole sitting SEAT of Pepe Oriola at the start and going on to take his third win of the season, whilst his Chevrolet team-mates had to fight hard for what was eventually fourth and fifth place.

Menu passed Oriola at the start, whilst Tom Coronel had a great launch from sixth on the grid in the rear-wheel drive BMW to be up to third by the first corner. Coronel would pass Oriola for second through Turn 3 – though Oriola was able to get back ahead of Coronel on the third lap.

On lap two, Tiago Monteiro was battling with Norbert Michelisz for fifth position, but as they fought they left a gap which allowed a late-braking Gabriele Tarquini to slip through up to fifth position.

Michelisz would soon have an excursion off track which dropped him down the order and allowed the two Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Rob Huff through. The two Chevrolets would soon dispatch Monteiro’s SR León despite the Portuguese driver’s best efforts to hold the his ground.

The battle was now on between Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller. The two drivers passed the BMW of Alberto Cerqui and were battling for fourth into Turn 1 on lap eight. Muller tried to replicate his pass around the outside from race one on the Italian, but this time Tarquini kept his nose ahead – but then he hit the kerb on the apex of the first corner which launched his SEAT into the air, with Muller able to dive past for the position.

Rob Huff, immediately behind, hit the back of the slowing Tarquini which spun the Italian around and in turn he clipped the back of Muller’s Chevrolet. Muller lost ground and dropped behind Huff, whilst Tarquini was forced to retire from the race.

Alberto Cerqui was able to pass the Chevrolets in the fracas, but Huff was able to pass the 19-year-old on the following lap to retake fourth. The next lap Muller tried to pass Cerqui down the inside on the straight finish straight but Cerqui saw him coming and closed the door, but Muller was able to pass Cerqui for fifth lining up a pass in Turn 2.

Menu went on to win the race, whilst competing as the fictional French racing hero Michel Vaillant, whilst Pepe Oriola secured his first podium finish in the WTCC with Tom Coronel in third.

Yvan Muller extends his lead in the Championship to 18 points over Rob Huff over the weekend, whilst Alain Menu is 35 points behind as the WTCC takes a seven week break before resuming in South America in Brazil on July 22nd.