Rob Huff cuts the points gap with race two victory

Rob Huff won the second race at Curitiba from eighth on the grid ahead of Alain Menu, with Gabriele Tarquini taking the final spot on the podium for SEAT in an action packed race.

The SUNRED team were able to repair Tiago Monteiro’s SR León after the damage he’d sustained in the first race, so the Portuguese-driver was able to take his third place spot on the grid.

Darryl O’Young was absent from the grid however, after the Special Tuning Racing team identified a gearbox problem for the Hong Kong driver, and were unable to repair it within the 15 minute repair time. O’Young was therefore unable to start from his qualifying position of fourth, and started from the pit lane but would eventually retire.

Norbert Michelisz had a great start from pole position, whilst the two Bamboo Chevrolets of Michel Nykjaer and Alex MacDowall both bogged down at the start and dropped outside the top ten, and were forced to work their way back up the order.

Gabriele Tarquini leapt up into third place, passing former and future team-mate Tiago Monteiro, whilst Yvan Muller was able to get ahead of his Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu at the start, but the Swiss-driver retook the position on the second lap of the race.

Gabriele Tarquini dispatched a struggling Tom Coronel for second at Turn 1 on the second lap, with the Dutchman also passed by Monteiro’s León and the three Chevrolets, which then all moved ahead of Monteiro on the following lap.

The safety car was called on lap three after Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver Charles Ng crashed out at Turn 8, at the same spot his team-mate Franz Engstler had gone off on the previous lap, with both Engstler BMWs out of the race.

After the safety car came in, Gabriele Tarquini jumped straight into the lead ahead of Norbert Michelisz, with the Chevrolet freight-train also following Tarquini through dropping Michelisz down to fifth, where he’d go on to finish, winning in the independents’ trophy classification.

Alberto Cerqui crashed out on lap eight in the ROAL Motorsport BMW, whilst he was trying to pass Aleksei Dudukalo’s Lukoil Racing SEAT. Cerqui had tried to pass on the right on the start-finish straight, but the Russian moved over making contact with Cerqui, knocking the Italian hard into the wall, where the BMW came to a rest with broken suspension.

Tarquini was able to hold off Rob Huff until lap 11, when the British driver drove around the outside of the Italian’s SEAT at Turn 1 and into the lead, with Alain Menu passing on the more traditional inside line at the same corner two laps later, demoting Tarquini to third.

Tarquini held off Yvan Muller to take the final spot on the podium, and mark the first time all weekend that Chevrolet haven’t occupied at the top three spots in any session.

Rob Huff now closes back to 17 points behind Yvan Muller with Alain Menu 37 points down. Rob Huff has closed by one point over the whole weekend on Muller, whilst Menu has dropped back by just two.

Norbert Michelisz’s win in the independents’ trophy with SEAT’s Pepe Oriola not finishing moves the Hungarian into the lead of the trophy by just one point.

The next round of the Championship is in two months time, as the WTCC visits the Sonoma Raceway in California on its first visit to the United States.