Yvan Muller has extended his points lead heading to the World Touring Car Championship season finale in Macau with a fine victory in the second race at Tianma in Shanghai.
Gabriele Tarquini took the lead at the start of the race past polesitter Rob Huff. Huff looked to regain the place further round the opening lap but Tarquini defended and forced the Brit onto the grass. This allowed Muller to move up into second place.
Muller took the lead from Tarquini a couple of laps later, and soon opened up a comfortable lead. His final winning advantage stood at 10.5 seconds.
Huff was soon on the back of Tarquini again after their contact, but could not find a way through around the tight Tianma circuit. The result leaves Huff 20 points away from Muller going to Macau in a fortnight's time.
Colin Turkington was running fourth until he locked his brakes at Turn 1 ten laps in, losing places to Tom Coronel and Race 1 winner Alain Menu. He would get back past both of them before the end of the race, taking the Dutchman on the very last lap.
The two Engstler BMWs of Kristian Poulsen and Franz Engstler finished on the back of the Tarquini train in seventh and eighth – giving the former a 23 point lead in the Yokohama Trophy.
Poulsen's cause was helped when chief rival Norbert Michelisz spun at the start, taking himself out of the race as well as Tiago Monteiro and Javier Villa.
Robert Dahlgren finished ninth in the Polestar Volvo, with Hong Kong's Charles Ng scoring a maiden point in tenth in his Engstler-run BMW.
Race results – 25 laps:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 28:19.599 |
2 | Gabriele Tarquini | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 10.518 |
3 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 11.385 |
4 | Colin Turkington | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 11.812 |
5 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 12.140 |
6 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 12.896 |
7 | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 13.336 |
8 | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 13.612 |
9 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 Drive | 22.279 |
10 | Charles Ng | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 24.172 |
11 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 33.725 |
12 | Fredy Barth | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 36.977 |
13 | Pepe Oriola | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 43.090 |
14 | Michel Nykjaer | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 46.761 |
15 | Fabio Fabiani | Engstler | BMW 320si | +1 lap |
16 | Philip Ma | Proteam | BMW 320si | +1 lap |
17 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | +2 laps |
Ret | Darryl O'Young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 2 laps |
Ret | Tiago Monteiro | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 1 laps |
Ret | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 1 laps |
Ret | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 0 laps |
Drivers' standings after 11 of 12 rounds:
Pos | Driver | Points |
1 | Yvan Muller | 400 |
2 | Rob Huff | 380 |
3 | Alain Menu | 323 |
4 | Tom Coronel | 203 |
5 | Gabriele Tarquini | 177 |
6 | Tiago Monteiro | 113 |
7 | Kristian Poulsen | 106 |
8 | Norbert Michelisz | 82 |
9 | Franz Engstler | 74 |
10 | Robert Dahlgren | 72 |