Success for Priaulx in Monza
Date published : 25 May 2010 - 14:18:50
Britain's Andy Priaulx claimed his second successive victory by claiming a thrilling win in race one at Sunday afternoon's World Touring Car Championship meeting in Monza.
The three-time former champion claimed victory on the final corner of the final lap to finish ahead of BMW team-mate Augusto Farfus. France's Yvan Muller in the Chevrolet won race two with SEAT's Tom Coronel second.
That saw Muller take the lead in the championship, moving 24 points ahead of SEAT's Gabriele Tarquini with Priaulx two points further back in fourth.
Guernseyman Priaulx, who won race two in Marrakech last time out, took advantage of the misfortune of first Tarquini and then fellow Briton Robert Huff - the Italian suffered a puncture on the last lap, while the front-left tyre of Huff's Chevrolet exploded - to take the win.
Huff, who now sits level on points with Tarquini in the standings, still managed to crawl across the line in third. Muller and Coronel were fourth and fifth with Tarquini coming home in seventh.
Priaulx said: "I am so excited. It was bad luck for Gabriele and Rob, as I know only too well as this sort of thing has happened to me in the past, but if an opportunist win is there you take it. The last lap was amazing, as up to then I was at the head of a train for third, and so had no chance of a slipstream."
In race two, Muller also left it to the final lap before clinching the win.
Chevrolet's Yvan Muller claimed a last lap victory as the lead SEAT Leon TDI of Danish rookie Michel Nykjaer, who had led from pole, also saw his hopes hit by a puncture and did not finish, allowing Muller to come through.
Huff took another third place with Brazil's Farfus fourth and Priaulx taking fifth to complete a decent afternoon.
"This has been a great weekend with good results and good championship points," added Priaulx.
