Yvan Muller: “Fantastic start key to Race 2 win”

Yvan Muller put his Race 2 victory at the World Touring Car Cup round in Macau down to “a fantastic start”, after the Frenchman snatched an early decisive lead from fifth on the grid.

Muller, who has won both races contested so far this weekend, took Race 2 victory ahead of Cyan Racing stablemate Thed Björk and Alfa Romeo’s Kevin Ceccon.

”Yes, that was a fantastic start”, Muller said following the race. “I knew if I wanted to have the opportunity to win, I had to pass the Alfa [of Ceccon] and the Honda [of Esteban Guerrieri], and then I knew it was my team-mates in front and the place would be clear, so I was very focused on that. Sometimes you make a fantastic start, sometimes you don’t and you don’t know really why, but this one was a good one.”

Muller initially ran behind Lynk & Co team-mates Yann Ehrlacher and Björk, but snatched the lead on the second lap and never looked back as Cyan Racing played the team game amid the ever-increasing championship battle. Both Muller and Björk are firmly in contention for the WTCR title, holding third and fourth respectively in the standings.

”We knew of course straight away, because they were starting one and two with Thed, that if that was the case at the first corner Yann would let Thed past and if I was joining them, I would pass both of them. And it happened and thanks very much to Thed and Yann because that victory could have been theirs.”

With one race to go this weekend ahead of the season-finale at Sepang next month, Muller has reduced the gap to overall leader Norbert Michelisz to just 17 points. A WTCR race win is worth 25 points. Muller will start the imminent Race 3 from sixth on the grid, ahead of all three of his championship rivals (Björk will start eighth, Esteban Guerrieri tenth and Michelisz 12th).