Chevrolet claimed a 1-2-3 finish and Yvan Muller a double victory from a second WTCC race at Valencia that had looked set to produce a podium lockout from BMW.
Although the BMW of Franz Engstler pretty much failed to get away from pole position, Tom Coronel took the lead in his 320TC and was followed by the similar Bavarian machines of Javier Villa and Norbert Michelisz during the opening half of the race. Muller had climbed to fourth place but was not making many inroads into third placed Michelisz.
The race turned on its head though with the BMW trio only four laps from completing a remarkable result. Villa made a move on Coronel for the lead at Turn 2, but the Dutchman retaliated into the next corner. Coronel's car rode up the side of Villa's, sending the Spaniard into the gravel trap. While Michelisz was distracted by the events in front of him Muller dived down the inside of the corner to take the lead.
The Hungarian wasn't going to give up that easily though, and he remained on Muller's bumper until the final lap. Huff made an opportunistic move down the inside of the BMW driver on the entry to the very last corner. Michelisz attempted to get the power down early to get back past Huff on the run to the line, but he spun his car. He dropped to seventh, as Menu followed his teammates across the line for the most unlikely of Chevrolet 1-2-3s.
Coronel was fourth, ahead of Gabriele Tarquini and Kristian Poulsen. Pepe Oriola, Robert Dahlgren and the recovering Engstler completed the top ten behind Michelisz.
Muller’s double victory gives him a 16 point lead over Huff in the standings, while Chevrolet have wrapped up the manufacturers’ title. Three flyaway rounds in Asia remain, with the first of those being the series’ first visit to Suzuka in Japan on 23 October.
Race 2 results – 13 laps:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 23:14.296 |
2 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 0.434 |
3 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1.143 |
4 | Gabriele Tarquini | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 2.966 |
5 | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 5.560 |
6 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 9.201 |
7 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 12.184 |
8 | Pepe Oriola | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 15.651 |
9 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 Drive | 17.952 |
10 | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 19.055 |
11 | Stefano D’aste | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 22.493 |
12 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 24.806 |
13 | David Sigacev | KK | BMW 320 TC | 29.091 |
14 | Darryl O’young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 30.030 |
15 | Michel Nykjaer | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 30.488 |
16 | Yukinori Taniguchi | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 40.370 |
17 | Fabio Fabiani | Proteam | BMW 320si | 1:41.824 |
18 | Fredy Barth | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | +2 laps |
19 | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | +4 laps |
Ret | Aleksei Dudukalo | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 4 laps |
Ret | Tiago Monteiro | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1 lap |