» WTCC Race 10: Tarquini wins thrilling Portimao race

Gabriele Tarquini took an unexpected victory in the second race at Portimao, climbing from sixth on the grid to finish the eleven-lap race ahead of all his rivals.

Front-row starters and fellow SEAT runners and Fredy Barth and Norbert Michelisz had short-lived stints at the front of the field. Barth made an appalling start from pole and had slumped to eighth by the first turn, leaving Michelisz out front.

But the Hungarian was to suffer his own maladies, when his León TDI slowed after leading for four laps, and he tumbled down the order before retiring disconsolately in pit lane.

Michelisz’s woes allowed Alain Menu into the lead, but his moment in the sun evaporated almost as quickly as it arrived, for he was passed just two corners later by Tarquini. The Swiss driver was unable to respond to the Italian’s attack, and he fell victim to passes by team-mates Yvan Muller and Robert Huff before the chequered flag fell.

With the Chevrolets scrapping over the remaining podium places, Tarquini was free to cruise to a comfortable victory while all the action happened behind him.

Having staged an impressive charge from the rear of the field, Huff snatched the final podium place from Menu with an audacious pass into Turn 5 on the final lap.

But the Briton’s celebrations would prove short-lived, as another panel-running session with August Farfus raised the Race Stewards’ tempers, and – having been reprimanded for the same behaviour in the opening race – they did not take kindly to a repeat of the same behaviour, duly slapping Huff with a 30-second time penalty that dropped him to 18th place overall.

The beneficiaries of the penalty were Menu, who claimed third ahead of the BMWs of Andy Priaulx and Farfus, who followed the Chevrolets home after passing Tom Coronel and Tiago Monteiro on the track.

Darryl O’Young took an impressive Independents’ Trophy victory in the elderly Lacetti, heading home Colin Turkington, who staged an impressive fight back after being bumped down the order after first-lap contact.

Race 10 Final Classification (11 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Gabriele Tarquini	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	21:49.935
2.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1.736
3.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 3.244
4.	Andy Priaulx	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 3.570
5.	Augusto Farfus	RBM Team BMW 320si	+ 4.094
6.	Tom Coronel	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 6.201
7.	Tiago Monteiro	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	+ 6.513
8.	Fredy Barth	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	+ 10.207
9.	Darryl O’Young (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 12.751
10.	Colin Turkington (I)	eBay Motors BMW 320si	+ 13.609
11.	Harry Vaulkhard (I)	Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 14.857
12.	Mehdi Bennani (I)	Wiechers Sport BMW 320si	+ 18.100
13.	Stefan D’Aste (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 19.125
14.	Franz Engstler (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 21.271
15.	Robert Huff*	RML Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 32.587
16.	Andrey Romanov (I)	Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 35.977
17.	Sergio Hernández (I)	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	+ 1 lap
	Not Classified
	Jordi Gené	SR Sport SEAT León TDI	9 laps
	Norbert Michelisz	Zengö-Dension SEAT León	5 laps
	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SEAT León TDI	3 laps
	Kristian Poulsen (I)	Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si	1 lap