» WTCC: Citroëns sweep to wins in Belgium

Defending series champion Yvan Muller managed to take two points out of Citroën teammate José María López’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings after finishing with a win and a second-placed finish on Sunday’s two World Touring Car Championship races at Spa-Francorchamps. López managed another of his fighting charges through the field to claim victory in Race 2.

Race 1: Muller claims lights-to-flag win

Yvan Muller took a fairly comfortable victory in Sunday’s opening race, blasting away from the field from pole position to head another all-Citroën podium. Teammates López and Sébastien Loeb battled throughout for second place, with López eventually emerging victorious after passing the French rally ace on the final lap with a brilliant overtaking move.

The race saw action aplenty behind Muller, who hooked up a good start and quickly set about building enough of a buffer from Loeb and López so they couldn’t gain any slipstream advantage.

Further back, Hugo Valente’s Campos Chevrolet suffered contact from the Honda of Gabriele Tarquini at La Source; the Frenchman was pushed wide at the exit and ran side-by-side with Tarquini through Eau Rouge. Tarquini was, in turn, forced wide at Radillon after he had to lift off the throttle and lost several places on the dash to the Les Combes chicane.

Valente was controversially awarded a drive-through penalty for using the run-off at La Source, and that promoted a fast-starting Gianni Morbidelli – pole-sitter for Race 2 – into fourth place, which he kept for the remainder of the race.

Morbidelli came under intense pressure from Tiago Monteiro, who tried to squeeze his Honda past the Italian at the Bus Stop Chicane on the final lap. The Portuguese driver left his braking a little too late, however, and the loss of momentum allowed Morbidelli and Tom Coronel to outdrag him on the sprint to the finish line. Coronel finished just 0.073 seconds ahead, with Monteiro’s fellow Honda runners of Norbert Michelisz and the recovering Tarquini right behind.

The Chevrolets of Dušan Borković and Tom Chilton rounded out the points-paying positions, with both delivering hard-charging drives from the rear of the field. Borković clambered up to ninth from the back of the grid (courtesy of an overnight engine change), while Chilton stalled at the start of the race and fell to last place.

The fourth Citroën of Ma Qing Hua finished just outside the points; the Chinese driver suffered a collapsed windscreen in the closing laps but bravely soldiered on, losing out to Chilton in the final laps.

Valente finished a frustrated twelfth after his drive-through penalty, and was followed over the line by the Proteam Honda of Mehdi Bennani, who’d also been hit with a tour through pit lane for shortcutting the circuit.

The three LADAs of Mikhail Kozlovskiy, Rob Huff and James Thompson brought up the rear of the TC1 class runners. Huff made a blinding getaway, only to throw away his slim chance of a points’ finish with a spin on the opening lap.

The four-car TC2T class was once again headed by Franz Engstler, who continued his undefeated run with a comfortable win ahead of the two Campos SEATs of John Filippi and series debutante Norbert Nagy.

2014 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium – Race 1 Classification (9 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	Class
1.	Yvan Muller	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	22:09.364	TC1
2.	José María López	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 3.689	TC1
3.	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 4.318	TC1
4.	Gianni Morbidelli	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 21.125	TC1
5.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 21.998	TC1
6.	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	+ 22.071	TC1
7.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 23.517	TC1
8.	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	+ 24.350	TC1
9.	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 30.094	TC1
10.	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 30.940	TC1
11.	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 31.821	TC1
12.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 39.719	TC1
13.	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCC	+ 45.992	TC1
14.	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 47.654	TC1
15.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 48.196	TC1
16.	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 57.311	TC1
17.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 1:09.895	TC1
18.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 1:28.674	TC2
19.	John Filippi	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	+ 1:42.573	TC2
20.	Norbert Nagy	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	+ 1:43.916	TC2
21.	Pasquale di Sabatino	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	– 1 lap	TC2

Race 2: López consolidates with another hard-charging victory

Citroën’s José María López returned serve over teammate Yvan Muller with victory in Sunday’s second race, giving the field another masterclass in aggressive overtaking after starting from eighth on the grid.

Polesitter Gianni Morbidelli lost his lead on the opening lap after Tom Coronel overtook the Italian’s identical-spec RML-built Chevrolet on the run to Eau Rouge; Tiago Monteiro took his Honda into second place at the end of the Kemmel straight.

Many eyes were on the three frontrunning Citroëns of López, Muller and Sébastien Loeb – all fitted with extra bolts on their windscreens after Ma Qing Hua’s failed in Race 1 – who were quickly working their way up the field.

López biffed his way past Hugo Valente’s Chevrolet at Les Combes on the opening lap to find himself in sixth – and the leading Citroën – by the end of the opening lap; he then swept ahead of Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda on the following lap.

It took a further two laps before he caught and passed Morbidelli’s Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet at the Bus Stop Chicane. He made easy work on Monteiro with a similar move to slot into second place.

Coronel had built himself a small buffer out in the lead, but López quickly wound him in. Coronel gamely defended his position, but there was a sense of inevitability that López would get by, such was the sheer pace of his C-Elysée – the move came after he simply outdragged the Dutchman at the exit of La Source.

Muller was similarly making headway, passing Monteiro’s Honda at Les Combes and then getting ahead of Coronel under braking for the Bus Stop chicane.

Coronel hung on to complete the podium from Monteiro, with the pair coming under threat from Loeb, who had a tougher time making his way through the field from ninth on the grid.

Morbidelli finished sixth, with Norbert Michelisz, Gabriele Tarquini, Hugo Valente and Tom Chilton completing the top ten.

After a retirement-free opening race, there were two DNFs this time around, with Ma Qing Hua and Dušan Borković both peeling into the pits with mechanical issues.

2014 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium – Race 2 Classification (9 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	Class
1.	José María López	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	22:16.645	TC1
2.	Yvan Muller	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 3.097	TC1
3.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 8.409	TC1
4.	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	+ 8.912	TC1
5.	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 9.060	TC1
6.	Gianni Morbidelli	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 16.851	TC1
7.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 17.929	TC1
8.	Gabriele Tarquini	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	+ 19.026	TC1
9.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 20.500	TC1
10.	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 21.187	TC1
11.	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCC	+ 22.296	TC1
12.	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 34.995	TC1
13.	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 38.692	TC1
14.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 39.557	TC1
15.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport	+ 50.893	TC1
16.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 1:17.281	TC2
17.	Pasquale di Sabatino	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 1:23.029	TC2
18.	Norbert Nagy	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	+ 1:33.065	TC2
19.	John Filippi	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	– 1 lap	TC2
	Not Classified
DNF.	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	5 laps	TC1
DNF.	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Racing C-Elysée	4 laps	TC1