Michel Nykjaer takes win number three in Moscow

Danish driver Michel Nykjaer won the second race of the day at the Moscow Raceway for Nika Racing ahead of RML’s Yvan Muller in an incident packed race at the Russian circuit.

The first drama was the repair of Charles Ng’s Engstler BMW, which managed to leave the pit lane with just 20 seconds to spare in order to make the grid, but unbeknownst to the team, they had been moved to the back as they had been working on the car after the chequered flag had fallen in race one and had broken parc ferme regulations.

Although the team’s mechanics headed to the front row to complete repairs on the car’s front suspension, they discovered they needed to head to the final position, with Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjaer elevated to second on the grid.

Unfortunately for Ng, the car’s repairs didn’t last a lap and he was forced to pit and retire, with Fredy Barth’s car already withdrawn due to the damage sustained in the pair’s collision in race one.

At the standing start, Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani blasted into the lead in his rear-wheel drive BMW ahead of Nykjaer’s Chevrolet, whilst Pepe Oriola’s SEAT and Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini diced for third position. Tarquini and Oriola came together at the first hairpin, with Tarquini knocking the young SEAT driver wide and down to seventh position.

Bennani held a 1.3 second lead by the end of the first lap, but the pace of the Chevrolet saw Nykjaer obliterate that gap by the end of lap two.

Tom Coronel was making good progress from eighth on the grid in his ROAL BMW, passing the Lada of James Thompson for fourth on the second lap, and now was attacking Tarquini for third place. Coronel, Tarquini, Thompson and Huff were four-wide battling for third at the start of lap four when Coronel ran across the nose of Tarquini’s Honda and spun right into James Thompson’s car, which saw Thompson’s car take terminal damage and Coronel fall to the back of the order.

Tarquini lost ground in the incident as well, whilst Rob Huff emerged in third ahead of Yvan Muller’s Chevrolet now up to fourth.

Michel Nykjaer briefly overtook Mehdi Bennani for the lead further on the lap down the back straight, but Bennani made contact with the Chevrolet driver into the final turn and was able to retake the position.

It wasn’t until lap seven until Nykjaer tried again, taking the lead from Bennani and pulling away as the SEAT of Rob Huff and the Chevrolet of Yvan Muller closed in on the Moroccan.

On lap nine, Huff tried to dive down the inside of Bennani for third at the final corner, but was forced to the outside and Bennani was able to make the switch back, with Yvan Muller following him through into third position. The Frenchman then overtook Bennani’s BMW down into Turn 1 for second position and now began to close in on race leader Nykjaer.

Two laps later, Huff tried again on the outside of Bennani at the final turn, with the Proteam driver spinning the BMW around and dropping down the order, with Pepe Oriola now promoted to fourth.

Norbert Michelisz kept with the Spanish driver to finish in fifth for the Zengo Honda team, with RML’s Tom Chilton and Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini continuing a race long battle which saw Chilton come out on top in sixth position ahead of the Italian.

Yvan Muller ran out of time to catch and pass the rival Chevrolet of Michel Nykjaer, which saw the Dane go on to take his third win of the season for the Swedish Nika Racing team with Yvan Muller further extending his lead in the drivers’ championship to 113 points over Tarquini, with Nykjaer moving up to third just six points behind the Honda driver.

Tom Coronel and Gabriele Tarquini are under investigation for the incident earlier in the race and may face penalties from the stewards. Coronel had gone on to finish in 14th position.

The next race is the street race at Porto on June 30th in three weeks’ time.