Farfus and Tarquini win on the streets of Porto
In front of the 120,000 spectators who turned out to watch the 99th an 100th World Touring Car Championship races at the Circuito da Boavista in Portugal, it was Gabrielle Tarquini (Seat Sport) and Augusto Farfus (BMW Team Germany) who successfully kept their cars out of the armco to take the spoils.
In a very eventful first race of the day in Porto, Tarquini managed to avoid the chaos of the opening lap to romp home to victory ahead of Rob Huff in his Chevrolet Cruze and series leader Yvan Muller in the second of the diesel Seats.
The first incident involved Sergio Hernandez (BMW Team Italy-Spain) and Japp van Lagen (LADA Sport). Hernandez hit a concrete wall sideways at high speed and was immediately taken to the local hospital for x-rays on his ankle. The Spaniard returned to the circuit later on, having been given the all-clear by doctors.
The armco barriers claimed more victims shortly after this incident, when no less than seven cars piled into each other.The crash was triggered when Farfus pushed Alain Menu’s Chevrolet Cruze into a spin at Turn 10. As Farfus recovered from the contact with Menu he swerved into the path of Tiago Montiero (Seat Sport) who was subsequently hit by Nicola Larini in the third Chevy; the Italian trying desperately to find a clear path through the carnage. The resulting pile up involving Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport), Franz Engstler (Liqui Moly Team Engstler), Diego Puyo (SUNRED Engineering), Mehdi Bennani (Exagon Engineering) and Tom Boardman (SUNRED Engineering) led to a quick decision from race control to stop the race until the blockage was cleared and the track made safe again.
At the race restart, Tarquini got away well. He kept his cool and refused to succumb to the pressure that was being applied by Huff, who was glued to the Italian’s rear bumper throughout the race. Farfus served a drive-through penalty for causing the earlier pile up that disrupted the race.
Tarquini went on the win and was closely followed over the finish line by Huff and his team mate Yvan Muller, who currently leads the championship.
In the second race of the day, Farfus led the field away from pole position with determination after some rookie errors at the last meeting in the Czech Republic and in the first race in Portugal.
Yvan Muller (Seat Sport) passed Larini at Turn 2 on the opening lap with a well-timed lunge up the inside of the corner – the Frenchman used the concrete wall on the inside to prevent Larini from closing the door on him. By the end of the race, Muller had moved up to second to take eight valuable championship points.
The race remained clean until Turn 5 on lap 3 when Larini and race one winner Tarquini came together – the pair, both refusing to give way, ended up buried in the tyres.
Shortly after this collision, Bennani locked his brakes as he entered the same corner. The SUNRED driver missed the two stricken cars of Larini and Tarquini but, unfortunately rejoined the track directly in the path of Boardman who was unable to avoid hitting him.
In response to this incident, the Safety Car was deployed, but shortly after the restart on lap 9, there was a third collision between Engstler and Felix Portiero (Scuderia Proteam Motorsport). As Engstler recovered, Menu stormed up behind him and went to pass the Independent. Unfortunately contact between the two forced Menu into a spin and the works Chevrolet driver collided with the metal barriers, blocking the track and causing the race to be suspended.
Farfus remained cool and focused despite having to endure two restarts and he eventually rewarded himself and his team with a victory and maximum points.
Despite his race win, Tarquini remains 14 points adrift of his Seat Sport team mate Yvan Muller and he has fallen into the clutches of Farfus who, despite dismal performances in the last three races, is still the top BMW driver and is now within one point of the Italian.
The series moves on to Brands Hatch in Kent for Rounds 11 and 12 of the season, which will be held on 19th July.
WTCC Championship Standings after Round 10
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