WTCC

Menu Survives Battles With BMWs To Win Race 2

2 Mins read
Alain Menu - Photo Credit: WTCC Media

Alain Menu - Photo Credit: WTCC Media

Alain Menu maintained Chevrolet's unbeaten start to the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season with victory in Race 2 at Valencia, leading home four BMWs in an incident-packed race.

Stefano D'Aste began the race from pole and held his own out front for several laps. Front row starter Menu lost out to Franz Engstler off the line, but took the place back later on the opening lap.

It took a while for Menu to catch D'Aste, but got past him on lap six but only after making contact. He sportingly handed the lead back to the Wiechers-Sport driver before the next corner. Menu did manage to take the lead with a clean move at Turn 2 on the following lap.

On lap nine the leaders found oil on the track, Menu skidding off through the gravel and D'Aste and Engstler following him. Tom Coronel capitalised to move ahead of Engstler and D'Aste into second place, while Menu survived with his lead intact.

Coronel began catching Menu in the closing stages and the pair made contact on a straight as Coronel tried to pull alongside. This sent Menu out of control and onto the grass, but once again he survived with his lead intact as Coronel backed out of the throttle.

Menu held on to win ahead of Coronel and D'Aste, with Norbert Michelisz and Engstler close behind.

Rob Huff started sixth and finished there, while Race 1 winner Yvan Muller had made up early ground to run seventh. He too would get caught out on the oil though, dropping a place to eighth behind Pepe Oriola. Gabriele Tarquini had a quiet run to ninth, with Mehdi Bennani in tenth.

James Nash was having a good race in 11th for Team Aon until being forced to retire. Alex MacDowall and Tom Chilton finished 14th and 15th after being involved in a good multi-car midfield battle. Tom Boardman retired on the opening lap after making contact with another car.

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time/Gap
1 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 13 laps in 23:03.207
2 Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 320 TC 0.861
3 Y Stefano D’Aste Wiechers BMW 320 TC 1.306
4 Y Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 320 TC 1.629
5 Y Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 320 TC 1.901
6 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 3.007
7 Y Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT Leon WTCC 5.704
8 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 6.368
9 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil SEAT Leon WTCC 15.044
10 Y Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 320 TC 15.306
11 Y Isaac Tutumlu Proteam BMW 320 TC 19.838
12 Y Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil SEAT Leon WTCC 21.166
13 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti SR Leon 1.6T 21.865
14 Y Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 23.167
15 Tom Chilton Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 25.024
16 Y Pasquale Di Sabatino Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 27.071
17 Y Andrea Barlesi Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 50.229
18 Y Fernando Monje Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 1:04.377
19 Y Charles Ng Engstler BMW 320 TC 3 laps
Not Classified  
James Nash Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 8 laps
Y Darryl O’Young Special Tuning SEAT Leon WTCC 4 laps
Y Alberto Cerqui ROAL BMW 320 TC 1 laps
Y Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT Leon TDi 0 laps
Y Gabor Weber Zengo BMW 320 TC 0 laps
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About author
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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