» WTCC Japan: Coronel claims emotional Race 2 win

Finally, Tom Coronel has done it! The Dutchman has claimed his first World Touring Car Championship win in three years, absorbing race-long pressure from the chasing Chevrolets in the second of today’s two races at Suzuka.

Incredibly, it’s just the third non-Chevrolet win of the season, it being BMW’s second win of the year after Franz Engstler’s shock win at Oschersleben earlier this year.

When pole-sitter Darryl O’Young (Bamboo Chevrolet) made a sluggish getaway, front-row starter Coronel took advantage to ease into an early lead on the opening lap.

Behind him, O’Young was swamped by the chasing pack, and it was perhaps little surprise that he would be the victim of the customary opening-lap bumping and boring. Of equally little surprise was that Gabriele Tarquini was the catalyst: the SUNRED driver hit O’Young from behind and tipped the hapless driver into a spin.

But Coronel – whose BMW had to undergo hasty repairs after being clobbered in the first race – quickly found himself reeled in by the chasing Chevrolet trio of Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu, as well as Robert Dahlgren’s patched-up Volvo.

Mindful of the last round at Valencia where he lost a possible win, Coronel positioned his BMW perfectly in defence and never gave Muller – who was mere feet from Coronel’s bumper for much of the race – a chance to overtake.

While Coronel, Muller and Huff ran in good order, the battle for fourth between Menu and Dahlgren – who’d been punted out of the first race – was great fun.

Dahlgren had initially managed to scramble ahead of Menu and on the eleventh lap, he even tried a run on Huff for third. With Dahlgren trying to pass the Briton around the outside, Huff simply hung the Swede out to dry, which allowed Menu to claim fourth as Dahlgren scrambled to rejoin the circuit.

The former Scandinavian Touring Car Champion managed to close back up onto Menu, and the pair staged an entertaining side-by-side run through the Esses. Menu won that round, leaving Dahlgren to settle for fifth place.

Sixth place went to SUNRED driver and Race 1 podium-finisher Michel Nykjær, who gave himself a healthy points’ boost with back-to-back Independent Trophy wins, courtesy of O’Young’s retirement on the opening lap.

But the Dane’s task wasn’t made easy, as he had to fend off the attentions of Colin Turkington (Wiechers BMW). Behind them, Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) finished eighth and the third of the Independent Trophy drivers, while fellow trophy challengers Norbert Michelisz (Zengõ-Dension BMW) and Kristian Poulsen (Engstler BMW) completed the top-ten.

With Muller and Huff having effectively claimed a 1:1 draw by each finishing ahead of the other this weekend, Muller’s points lead has been marginally trimmed to 13 points over the Englishman. Menu still remains in the hunt, albeit 73 points adrift.

The next (and penultimate) round of the championship is in two weeks time at the tight Tianma circuit in Shanghai.

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2011 FIA WTCC Race of Japan Final Classification (Race 2 – 23 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	21:10.854
2.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 0.558
3.	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 0.840
4.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 1.576
5.	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Volvo C30 1.6T ‘Drive’	+ 2.057
6.	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 7.397
7.	Colin Turkington	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC	+ 7.730
8.	Javier Villa García	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 8.292
9.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ-Dension Team BMW 320TC	+ 8.606
10.	Kristian Poulsen	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 8.901
11.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 9.477
12.	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil-SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 15.744
13.	Pepe Oriola	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 22.668
14.	Yukinori Taniguchi	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 23.263
15.	Toshihiro Arai	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 23.541
16.	Masaki Kano	DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 25.577
17.	Hiroki Yoshimoto	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 26.926
18.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 33.610
19.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 34.092

	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil-SUNRED SR León 1.6T	10 laps
DNF.	Darryl O’Young	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	1 lap
DNS.	Fredy Barth	Swiss Racing SR León 1.6T	did not start
DNS.	Tiago Monteiro	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	did not start
DNQ.	Fabio Fabiani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	did not qualify

	FASTEST LAP
	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	54.012