Yvan Muller extends his points lead after strong Hungary
RML’s Yvan Muller leaves Hungary with a 46 point lead in the drivers’ championship after a strong weekend, taking a victory and a fifth place, whilst Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini loses ground, compounded by a DNF in the second race.
After grabbing pole position on Saturday with a time none of the close-by Honda drivers said they could beat, Muller led the way in race one, although under pressure throughout from home hero Norbert Michelisz, with title rival Gabriele Tarquini some 12 seconds behind in third. With Muller’s win and Tarquini in third, the Frenchman extened his lead by ten points after race one.
In race two, Muller made a strong start and was fighting side-by-side with Tarquini through turn two before the two made contact, with Tarquini running across the nose of Muller’s Chevrolet and into the wall, retiring from the race and sustaining heavy damage to the Honda Civic as the car rebounded back onto the race track and into the path of Franz Engstler’s BMW.
After the race restarted, Muller was able to pass team-mate Tom Chilton and then Tom Coronel’s ROAL Motorsport BMW over the first few laps to move into fifth place, but settled for fifth behind the independent Chevrolet of James Nash. Fifth position netted Muller another ten points and saw the three-time champion extend his lead over the weekend by 22 points over Tarquini.
“I’m happy with pole position and happy with race one, and in race two my target was to be in the top five, and I finished P5, so I’m pleased with that,” said Muller to TouringCarTimes.
“I didn’t expect to be good here, and Gabriele was not on the pace in the first race compared to Michelisz, I don’t know why,” added Muller.
Reflecting on the first lap incident in race two, Muller explained:
“We had a contact unfortunately at Turn 2. I was on the outside but ahead of him ahead of the corner, and he knew if he didn’t squeeze me I’d be on the inside into Turn 3, so he squeezed me and squeezed me and I went off on the kerbs and even on the grass, but he still squeezed me – and at one point it’s too much, (if I was over any more) than that I’d be in the barrier.”
“He had about eight or ten metres on his left, I had nothing on my right, so the contact was impossible to avoid.”
The next round of the Championship is in two weeks at the Salzburgring, at a track where Yvan Muller was leading in the second race before suffering with a puncture half a lap from the end of the race, just as Chevrolet were on course to perform a perfect 1-2-3 result in both races. With punctures affecting all five of the Chevrolets that took part in the race, Muller admits there will a different approach this year.
“Last year we were fast, but we have to be very conservative this year.
“Salzburg is a fast track, and normally a fast track is a bit better for us. But with good drivers and engineers like the Honda team has they should be capable to change that, so we’ll see.”
