Photo: Christian Hartung

Yvan Muller takes his second career victory at Macau

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Yvan Muller has taken his second ever victory at the Guia circuit of Macau with a lights to flag victory, finishing ahead of the duelling Honda and SEAT of Tiago Monteiro and Rob Huff.

There was action in the build up to the race with a late engine change called for Gabriele Tarquini, which left the third place spot on the grid vacant.

Muller led the way at the start whilst Tiago Monteiro was left to defend against the Münnich Motorsport SEAT of Rob Huff, with the Zengõ Motorsport Honda of Norbert Michelisz in fourth.

Everyone made it safely through the first lap, but there was contact on the second lap with RML’s Tom Chilton, who with Tarquini’s engine woes had his chances of grabbing second in the drivers’ standings increased dramatically ahead of the race, pushed into the barriers by Tuenti Racing’s Pepe Oriola at Maternity.

Oriola now found himself defending against the SEAT León of Marc Basseng, eventually being passed by the German on lap six and finished eighth, with Stefano D’Aste, Tom Boardman and Tom Coronel close behind.

Muller built up a three second lead over Monteiro by lap three and maintained the gap throughout the race. Monteiro spent the whole race defending against Huff’s SEAT, who pushed his hardest on the final lap but had to settle for third.

Alex MacDowall finished fifth overall securing the Yokohama Trophy class win, but with team-mate James Nash just one spot behind, Nash is now confirmed as the Yokohama Trophy champion.

With Chilton not finishing and Nash in sixth, he also moves up to third in the drivers’ standings just one point ahead of Tom Chilton. The two drivers will start side-by-side on row two for the second race with Nash ahead of Chilton on the grid.

Although Gabriele Tarquini failed to start the race with his engine being changed by Honda Racing Team JAS, the Italian now just needs to score one point, or hope that neither Nash or Chilton wins the race, to secure second in the standings in race two.

Tom Coronel will start from pole position for race two in the ROAL BMW, with the Lada of James Thompson starting from second.