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Farfus Keeps It On The Road To Win Race Two In Okayama

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Augusto Farfus won the second of the World Touring Car Championship races at Okayama for BMW Team RBM after both Michel Nykjaer and then Gabriele Tarquini slid out of the lead on the rain-soaked Japanese circuit. Andy Priaulx's title hopes took a hit meanwhile after he spun into retirement.

Just like the first race, the safety car led the field around for two laps due to the conditions. When the field was waved away on lap three, Nykjaer drove away from pole position, ahead of Tarquini. Yvan Muller was jostling for position with the BMWs of Farfus and Priaulx, losing the rear end after contact with Priaulx and running wide through the gravel. He was able to remain in seventh though, before forcing Priaulx wide and taking sixth later in the lap.

On lap four, Norbert Michelisz dropped from fourth to sixth, allowing Farfus and Muller through in the process. Priaulx then lost control under braking, narrowly avoiding the Chevrolet of Rob Huff as he spun into the gravel and out of the race. Huff then passed Michelisz for sixth and Farfus took third from Colin Turkington.

The safety car was deployed on lap seven with Kevin Chen stopped on the racing line. After the restart Nykjaer opened up a lead over Tarquini, but then made an error as he ran wide into the gravel, dropping down to eighth in the process.

Tarquini inherited the lead, but soon lost it when he ran wide and hit the barriers. This allowed Farfus to take the lead, who took his first victory of the season. The race ended under the safety car after Henry Ho spun his BMW on the racing line. Turkington finished second (scoring his fourth podium in eight races), ahead of Muller and Huff. Alain Menu finished fifth in the third Chevrolet, ahead of Robert Dahlgren in the Volvo and Nykjaer. Michelisz slipped back to eighth, finishing ahead of Tom Coronel and Darryl O'Young, the winner of the Independents' Trophy. Franz Engstler took the remaining point in 11th.

Colin Turkington scored another podium of limited schedule

Muller now has a 37 point lead over Priaulx heading to the season finale at Macau on 21st November. Tarquini's retirement rules him out of contention.

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Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
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