» WTCC: Nash takes second career win at Porto

James Nash has claimed his second WTCC career win with a dominant lights-to-flag victory in today’s second race around the streets of Porto.

Starting from pole position in the second race’s customary standing start, Nash made a strong getaway to hold off the two Münnich Motorsport SEATs of Marc Basseng and Rob Huff, keeping them at bay through the opening run of corners. Huff quickly managed to depose teammate Basseng for second place.

James Thompson and Michel Nykjær staged an early battle for fourth place, while behind them, Pepe Oriola tried a dive-bomb pass on Tom Chilton at Turn 16 for sixth on the opening lap, pushing the RML driver wide and costing the Brit four places as he slipped offline. Also through in the incident went Chilton’s teammate Yvan Muller, along with the BMWs of Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani.

On the third lap, Nykjær moved into fourth past Thompson at the final chicane, and then repeated the exact same move on Basseng a lap later to move into third place.

From that point, the Dane’s progress was stalled courtesy of a very resistant Huff. The defending champion used every trick in the book, and once cut the chicane to defend his position on the fifth lap, which ultimately went unpunished by the stewards after a post-race hearing.

Having been demoted to fifth by Nykjær, Thompson quickly lost that spot to Chevrolet debutante Oriola, but the Spaniard had cut the chicane in his attempts to get by and had to return the spot to the LADA, only just managing to do so without letting the chasing Muller through as well.

Oriola managed to complete the move on Thompson on the seventh lap at the final chicane, and then also managed to overhaul Basseng before the chequered flag to claim a pair of fourth-placed finishes for the weekend – not a bad result considering his lack of mileage in the Cruze.

Up in front, Nash stoked away into a comfortable lead of some eight seconds, before backing off in the closing stages to claim his second win of the year, following his maiden success at the Salzburgring.

Huff finished in second ahead of Nykjær and Oriola, while Basseng claimed his best finish of the season since Marrakech, with Thompson chased hard over the finish line by Muller.

Muller’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship now extends to 122 points over Nykjær, who moves into second in the standings courtesy of a disastrous weekend for the Honda outfit. Gabriele Tarquini failed to claim a point in either race, retiring from today’s opener with a turbo failure, the repairs to which ensured a rear-of-the-grid start for Race 2. The Italian tumbles to fifth in the standings, with Nash vaulting to third and Huff moving into fourth.

The next round of the championship is the Race of Argentina on the first weekend of August.

2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal – Race 2 Final Classification (11 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	YIT
1.	James Nash	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	23:41.247	Y
2.	Robert Huff	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 5.624
3.	Michel Nykjær	NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 6.012	Y
4.	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 6.368	Y
5.	Marc Basseng	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 7.946
6.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Granta	+ 8.683
7.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 9.336
8.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 9.805
9.	Tom Chilton	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 10.178
10.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 10.669	Y
11.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	+ 11.019
12.	Stefano D’Aste	PB Sport BMW 320TC	+ 11.560	Y
13.	Darryl O’Young	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 15.262	Y
14.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 23.847	Y
15.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 30.812	Y
16.	Nikolai Karamyshev	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 31.836	Y
17.	Alex MacDowall	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 32.306	Y
18.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 33.542	Y
19.	Mikhail Kozlowskiy	LADA Sport Granta	+ 34.673
20.	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	+ 36.144
21.	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC	+ 2 laps	Y
	Not Classified		Result
DNF.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	7 laps	Y
DNF.	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	4 laps	Y
DNS.	Tom Boardman	Special Tune Racing SEAT León WTCC		Y
DNS.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC