Yvan Muller takes his fifth of the season in Porto to further extend his lead in the WTCC Drivers Championship.After qualifying on pole position, Muller took a lights-to-flag win ahead of his RML teammate Tom Chilton, who finished second. The top four was an all-Chevrolet affair, with Michel Nykjaer
finishing third and Pepe Oriola fourth. Nykjaer was also the highest-placed finisher in the Yokohama Trophy.
After Tiago Montiero pulled up with turbocharger failure in Free Practice yesterday, Gabriele Tarquini suffered the same fate in the other Castrol Team Honda car. As some comfort for the team, Monteiro - competing in front of a large home crowd - rewarded the fans by recovering from 17th to ninth.
Besides Tarquini, several other drivers failed to finish the race. Norbert Michelisz made contact with the wall on the second lap and pulled up, while a bizarre incident on lap 9 saw the BMW of
Franz Engstler make contact with the rear of a marshals pickup truck that was on its way to recover Tarquinis car. Fredy Barth then spun while trying to avoid Engstlers car and the pickup, which brought out the safery car for two laps. Key momentsStartMichelisz and Nykjaer make contact on the way to Turn 1Lap 1Tarquini and Oriola pass MicheliszLap 1Boardman outbrakes himself and hit BennaniLap 2Michelisz makes contact with the wall at Turn 13Lap 4Ng passes Karamyshev for 19thLap 5Nykjaer pressures ChiltonLap 8White smoke comes from Tarquinis car and he stops at Turn 13Lap 9Monteiro pressures NashLap 9Engstler hits a marshals vehicle, Barth spins; the Safety car is deployedLap 11the race resumesLap 12Coronel and DAste pass Basseng for seventh and eighthLap 12 - Monteiro passes Nash and then Basseng to finish 9thLap 12Boardman hits the wall at Turn 10
Quotes from the drivers who stepped on the podium after the first race at Porto.Yvan Mullerwinner: It was a tough race, especially with the temperatures; it was difficult not to make a mistake because it was something like sixty five or seventy degrees inside the car. You have to try and keep the brakes cool in these conditions and the tyre pressures were going up too, so I think we were all struggling a bit towards the end. My aim was to look after my brakes right from the beginning and that proved to be a good move. During the last three or four laps, it was really tough on the braking and I had to push harder and harder to get them to work. There is no agreement between Tom (Chilton) and me for the races but we have the same carand I know its difficult for him to overtake me. We have the same advantages and the same disadvantageswhere Im fast, hes fast and where Im slow, hes slowand so overtaking is complicated, particularly on this kind of track. Tom Chiltonsecond: It was a very close raceat one point, I was literally sniffing Yvans exhaust fumesbut I couldnt do anything about it because we both have the same car and to take even the smallest risk around here might mean you both going off. I actually made a small mistake on one lap and Michel (Nykjaer) got really close to me, but theres not enough room here to pass. The overtaking chances here arent great, but as a driver its one of the best circuits to race on and its very rewarding when you safely complete a lap.Michel Nykjaerthird and winner of Yokohama Trophy: It was a perfect race for us. The team did another really good job so we are very happy. It is very difficult to overtake at this track and I tried to pass Tom (Chilton) at one point but it was just too tough. When I saw Gabriele (Tarquini) having his problems behind me I knew then I could get some good points hereit was another good day at the office! Of course, I was very close to Tom at a few points during the race but I didnt want to take risks in passing him and maybe not get any points at all. If I had seen a chance I would have taken it, but that didnt happen.
