Photo: WTCC Media

Tiago Monteiro wins red flagged race 2 in Thailand

By

Tiago Monteiro won the second race at Buriram, Thailand. The Portuguese driver came home ahead of Sébastien Loeb, with Ma Qing Hua completing the podium ahead of newly-crowned World Champion José María López, as the race was red flagged with two laps to go.

At the start Norbert Michelisz retianed the lead, but more carnage at the first corner meant Yvan Muller was once again out of contention after a few yards. Bennani also went off in the process, but was able to rejoin the track.

Michelisz was leading from Monteiro, Tom Chilton, Loeb and Ma, but soon after the Portuguese overtook the Zengo Motorsport driver, the Yokohama Trophy leader was given a drive through for Parc Fermé infringements, thus losing all chances of scoring points. At that point several battles started, with Loeb overtaking Chilton for second and launching himself in the hunt for Monteiro.

Chilton defended hard from Ma, Tarquini and José María López, with Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani also involved in the fight. The intense battle resolved in Ma overtaking the ROAL Motorsport driver first, with López and Tarquini following shortly after. The Citroën driver came under attack from Tarquini, but a slight touch between the two meant the Italian was overtaken back by Chilton.

Just as Chilton was overtaken again, this time by Tarquini, Huff and Bennani, who would have therefore scored a win in the Yokohama Trophy, the race was stopped due to low light conditions, with race one having overran, thus setting the standings back to lap 10.

The result was Monteiro won ahead of Citroën’s Loeb, Ma and López, with the ROAL Motorsport Brit in fifth. Gabriele Tarquini came home sixth ahead of Rob Huff’s Lada Vesta, with Mehdi Bennani eighth in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën. Stefano D’Aste finished ninth ahead of Tin Sritrai, who once again scores a point in his home race.

The results are however sub judice as several investigations will be carried out after the race, including Mehdi Bennani’s accident at the first corner as well as two separate incidents involving López, one with team-mate Ma Qing Hua and another with Gabriele Tarquini.