» WTCC: Muller and Huff win carnage-hit Macau races

Sunday marked a crazy end to the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship, as it bade farewell to its Super 2000 regulations, rolling race starts and – in all likelihood – the familiar BMW 3-series cars from its grid ahead of an all-new championship next year.

Yvan Muller dominated proceedings with a lights-to-flag run in Race 1, while Rob Huff claimed his sixth WTCC victory on the streets of Macau, surviving a chaotic second race that was twice red-flagged.

Race 1: Muller blasts clear

Pole position winner Yvan Muller claimed the second Guia Race win of his WTCC career, handing out a lesson to the rest of the field with a comfortable drive to victory in his RML Chevrolet.

The build up to the race had plenty of action in the pit lane. The Castrol Honda team discovered an engine problem in Gabriele Tarquini’s Civic just minutes before the pit lane opened, and despite a Hurculean effort from the team to perform a complete engine change, the team’s sole hope rested on getting him ready for Race 2 – where he would have to start from the back of the grid.

The Italian’s woes looked set to prove a blessing for Tom Chilton and James Nash, whose chances of snatching second place in the Drivers’ Championship standings had improved, provided they could score a bundle of points in Race 1.

Tarquini’s absence also left a vacant slot on the second row of the grid and an easier task for Muller, who had just one Honda – that of Tiago Monteiro – to contend with as the race got underway via its traditional rolling start.

Muller blasted clear when the lights went green, leaving Monteiro to fend off a fast-starting Rob Huff in the Münnich Motorsport SEAT, while Norbert Michelisz tucked into fourth place in the Zengõ Motorsport Honda ahead of the two Bamboo Engineering Chevrolets of James Nash and Alex MacDowall, who were also scrapping for the independent Trophy championship.

For what felt like the first time in a thousand years, everyone made it through the seafront sweeps and the tight Lisboa right-hander.

The joy – or more specifically, Chilton’s – lasted only until Lap 2. The Englishman was running just behind the leading quartet when he was biffed into the barriers at Maternity Bend by Pepe Oriola, with the contact causing heavy damage to the back end of his RML Chevrolet.

Chilton managed to limp the battered car to the pits for urgent repairs ahead of Race 2, but his hopes of claiming the runner-up spot in the Drivers’ Championship were over – Oriola was handed a 30-second post-race time penalty in lieu of a drive-through penalty for his troubles.

The race continued without the intervention of the safety car, and Muller was able to build up a three-second lead over Monteiro and Huff, who duelled ferociously for second place.

Despite repeated attempts, Huff was unable to find a way past the Portuguese driver before the chequered flag came out.

Michelisz finished fourth ahead of MacDowall and Nash, with the latter doing better than the eighth-placed finish he required to wrap up the Independent title honours.

Oriola fell to eighth at the line (which ultimately became fifteenth with his penalty) behind Marc Basseng – who delivered one of his more competitive races in the second Münnich Motorsport SEAT – while the pair was chased by Stefano D’Aste, Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani.

2013 FIA WTCC Guia Race – Race 1 Final Classification (9 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	YIT
1.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	22:54.522
2.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	+ 1.265
3.	Robert Huff	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 1.592
4.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 5.147
5.	Alex MacDowall	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 7.096	Y
6.	James Nash	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 7.632	Y
7.	Marc Basseng	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 18.148
8.	Stefano D’Aste	PB Sport BMW 320TC	+ 20.644	Y
9.	Tom Boardman	Special Tune Racing SEAT León WTCC	+ 21.213	Y
10.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 21.806
11.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 22.806	Y
12.	Darryl O’Young	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 30.471	Y
13.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 32.905	Y
14.	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	LADA Sport Granta	+ 40.394
15.	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 50.345	Y
16.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 58.083	Y
17.	Yukinori Tanuguchi	NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 1:12.888	Y/A
18.	Michael Soong	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 1:13.961	Y
19.	Henry Ho Wai Kun	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 1:16.085	Y/A
20.	Filipe de Souza	China Dragon Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1:18.107	Y/A
21.	Joseph Merszei	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320si	+ 1:36.668	Y/A
22.	Ng Kin Veng	China Dragon Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1:44.616	Y/A
23.	Celio Alves Dias	China Dragon Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 1:45.773	Y/A
24.	Eurico de Jesus	PAS Macau Honda Accord Euro-R	+ 1:46.315	Y/A
25.	Jerónimo Badaraco	Son Veng Racing Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1:55.988	Y/A
26.	Lam Kam San	China Dragon Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 2:23.146	Y/A
27.	Mak Ka Lok	RPM Racing BMW 320si	+ 2:25.450	Y/A
28.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 1 lap	Y
29.	Konstantins Calko	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 2 laps	Y
	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	5 laps	Y
DNF.	Tom Chilton	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	2 laps
DNF.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Granta	2 laps
DNS.	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC
WD.	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC		Y

* Pepe Oriola incurred a post-race drive-through penalty (applied as a 30-second time penalty) for causing an avoidable collision with Tom Chilton.
’Y’ denotes Yokahama Independent Trophy driver. ‘A’ denotes Eurosport Asia Trophy driver.

Race 2: Huff survives demolition derby

If Race 1 was a relatively smooth affair, then Race 2 delivered a whole lot of crazy. In a twice red-flagged race which featured two huge pile-ups and where more than half the field, Rob Huff survived the madness to secure a record sixth win on the streets of Macau, signing off on his time at Münnich Motorsport in style.

The race was barely seconds old before it was red-flagged. courtesy of an eight-car pile-up at Turn 1, triggered by Norbert Michelisz’s Honda being clipped, which sent the Hungarian pinballing back and forth off the barriers, taking out several other drivers along the way.

Into instant retirement went the BMWs of Stefano D’Aste, Darryl O’Young and Mehdi Bennani, the SEATs of Hugo Valente, Tom Boardman and Konstantins Calko, as well as the LADA of Mikhail Kozlovskiy.

The remaining 25 cars would undertake a rolling race restart in their original grid order, and once again polesitter Tom Coronel got the jump, while James Thompson – despite concerns about his LADA’s straight-line speed – managed to hold off the chasing pack into Lisboa.

One corner later and Race 1 podium finishers Tiago Monteiro and Yvan Muller would come together at the San Francisco corner; Muller was pushed into the tyre barriers but was able to continue, while Monteiro’s race was over with rear suspension damage.

A lap later and Thompson was incredibly on Coronel’s tail through the seafront stretch, but the Englishman was forced to switch from attack to defence as the chasing Chevrolets of Chilton and Nash were sucked along in his slipstream, threatening to overtake the lot of them.

In all of the late braking, Nash gave the back of Chilton’s hastily-repaired Chevrolet a sizeable whack, which proved enough to dislodge the RML driver’s exhaust and trigger back-to-back DNFs for a furious Chilton.

Trying to find somewhere safe to park his stricken car, Chilton had made it all the way to Maternity Bend before he was hit by an unsighted Eurico de Jesus; the Macanese driver clipped the right-rear of Chilton’s car, ripping the rear axle off de Jesus’ Honda and leaving him stranded broadside across one of the narrowest sections of the circuit.

The safety car was immediately triggered, but several drivers were caught out by the accident, having either forgotten or chosen to completely ignore the waved yellow flags and marshals on the circuit.

While most cars managed to come to a stop and were slowly squeezing by de Jesus’ stranded car, some drivers arrived at the traffic jam with far too much speed.

Local driver Filipe de Souza kicked off the mayhem by running into Yvan Muller (adding left-rear damage to the Frenchman’s second-hand Chevrolet), before three of the Engstler BMWs – Franz Engstler, Charles Ng and Jo Merszei – managed to hit one another and take out Yukinori Taniguchi. Michael Soong was also out in the fracas, wiping off the front end of his SEAT for the third time in one weekend.

Race officials had no choice but to throw out the red flags again, and with the schedule (rather sensibly) allowing for another 90 minutes until the final blue-riband Formula 3 race, it was a half-hour wait while the wrecked cars were trailered away, which gave the rest of the increasingly-shrinking field time to get any damage repaired.

That left a four-lap dash to the chequered flag after another rolling start, and once again Coronel got the jump, although this time Huff managed to power past Thompson at Turn 1, with Nash following suit at Lisboa to claim third.

Oriola was next up, and in his quest to get by the Englishman, the Spanish teenager incredibly managed to repeat the same brainless stunt he exhibited on Chilton in Race 1: he punted Thompson into the barriers at Maternity Bend!

Thompson managed to get his stricken car off the circuit and the race continued to the flag without further safety car intervention.

Huff overtook Coronel on the following lap to claim the lead, while Oriola moved ahead of Nash when the Englishman appeared to miss a gearshift, and on the final lap he sailed ahead of Coronel.

Huff, Oriola and Coronel completed the podium – which incredibly stood, after the stewards only elected to give Oriola a reprimand – while Nash, MacDowall and Muller completed the top-six.

Bassen secured back-to-back top-eight finishes, while Tarquini finished eighth, having started dead last as a result of his last-minute engine change earlier in the day.

Such was the incredible level of attrition, local drivers Henry Ho and Celio Alves Dias secured outright points finishes in their normally-aspirated cars. It really was a strange race…

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

	Driver	Team	Q2 Time	YIT
1.	Robert Huff	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	1:23:32.152
2.	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 0.723	Y
3.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 1.173
4.	James Nash	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 2.909	Y
5.	Alex MacDowall	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 3.428	Y
6.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 4.642
7.	Marc Basseng	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 5.665
8.	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	+ 30.693
9.	Henry Ho Wai Kun	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si	+ 47.079	Y/A
10.	Celio Alves Dias	China Dragon Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 48.255	Y/A
11.	Ng Kin Veng	China Dragon Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 58.652	Y/A
12.	Lam Kam San	China Dragon Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 58.921	Y/A
13.	Mak Ka Lok	RPM Racing BMW 320si	+ 1:00.680	Y/A
14.	Franz Engstler*	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 1:18.982	Y
15.	Filipe de Souza	China Dragon Chevrolet Cruze LT	+ 1:34.078	Y/A
	NOT CLASSIFIED
DNF.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Granta	7 laps
DNF.	Yukinori Tanuguchi	NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	6 laps	Y/A
DNF.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	5 laps	Y
DNF.	Michael Soong	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	5 laps	Y
DNF.	Joseph Merszei	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320si	5 laps	Y/A
DNF.	Tom Chilton	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	4 laps
DNF.	Eurico de Jesus	PAS Macau Honda Accord Euro-R	4 laps	Y/A
DNF.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	3 laps	Y
DNF.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	3 laps
DNF.	Jerónimo Badaraco	Son Veng Racing Chevrolet Cruze LT	2 laps	Y/A
DNF.	Stefano D’Aste	PB Sport BMW 320TC	1 lap	Y
DNF.	Konstantins Calko	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	0 laps	Y
DNF.	Darryl O’Young	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	0 laps	Y
DNF.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	0 laps	Y
DNF.	Tom Boardman	Special Tune Racing SEAT León WTCC	0 laps	Y
DNF.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	0 laps	Y
DNF.	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	LADA Sport Granta	0 laps
DNF.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	0 laps
WD.	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC		Y

* Franz Engstler incurred a one-minute post-race time penalty for ignoring instructions to serve a drive-through penalty.
’Y’ denotes Yokahama Independent Trophy driver. ‘A’ denotes Eurosport Asia Trophy driver.