Muller completes Donington double

Date published : 17 Jul 2011 - 14:02:13

Yvan Muller completed a clean sweep of pole position and two wins in the Wold Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, although his race two victory remains provisional due to an incident that is among several being reviewed by the stewards. Muller started 10th and took advantage of the standard reversed-grid race chaos to make quick progress through the field. He claimed the lead from Gabriele Tarquini on lap five, but had gained a place along the way by tagging his Chevrolet team-mate Robb Huff into a half-spin at Goddard's. Huff survived and went on to finish second, but the clash is under investigation. Independent BMW driver Franz Engstler took his maiden WTCC podium finish in third; his result being earned partly through a great drive and partly through avoiding the chaos around him. Much of the drama tended to happen within the vicinity of Tarquini, who was involved in the accident that accounted for his SUNRED SEAT stablemates Michel Nykjaer and Tiago Monteiro early on, and then a later incident between Alain Menu's Chevrolet and Javier Villa's Proteam BMW. That clash, which left Villa with a puncture, is also being investigated. Polesitter Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) ended up fourth ahead of Menu, who spent the latter part of the race having to defend himself against the Polestar Volvo of Robert Dahlgren. Former British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington finished 10th; the Wiechers-Sport BMW driver's progress having been interrupted by a spin at the Melbourne Hairpin on the second lap. Results - 13 laps:Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 21m33.182s 2. Rob Huff Chevrolet + 0.957s 3. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 3.676s 4. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 4.826s 5. Alain Menu Chevrolet + 8.392s 6. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo + 9.016s 7. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT + 11.587s 8. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet + 13.031s 9. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 13.959s10. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW + 14.662s11. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT + 19.693s12. Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW + 24.802s13. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet + 31.646s14. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT + 33.495s15. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT + 1m26.671s16. Fabio Fabiani Proteam BMW + 1m43.775s17. Javier Villa Proteam BMW + 1 lapRetirements: Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW 9 laps Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 1 lap Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT 0 laps