Muller takes title as Huff wins both races

Not even the two victories Rob Huff obtained yesterday in the final round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Macau were enough, as his Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller captured the drivers’ crown with a third place finish in the second race.
Huff won the first race and reduced his gap from Muller, second in the first race, to 13 points, keeping alive his chances to be sacred world champion in the second race.
The Briton knew he needed to win the race to have a proper chance of the title and, after starting third, he soon set about moving to the head of the field after slotting in behind fast starter Tom Coronel and Michel Nykjaer on the run down to Lisboa.
Halfway through the lap, Huff dived past Nykjaer to take second place and then he set about closing in on Coronel. On lap three, Huff made his move and raced around the outside of his Dutch rival on the run down to Lisboa.
Behind them, Muller was making progress too from his eighth place on the grid and, after holding fifth on the opening lap, he moved up to fourth on lap three after overtaking Mehdi Bennani.
The safety car was then called out after Gary Kwok crashed heavily at Mandarin and, after the restart on lap seven, Huff was able to extend his lead steadily over the remainder of the race to finish 4.6 seconds ahead of Coronel.
Muller eventually finished third after overtaking Nykjaer at Lisboa on lap nine to secure his third FIA WTCC title in four years. The Frenchman was fourth in his debut and second in 2007 and 2009.
The top three positions remained unchanged until the chequered flag, with the man on the move in the closing stages being Gabriele Tarquini – who overtook Bennani for fifth on lap nine and then grabbed fourth off Nykjaer on the final lap.
Michel Nykjaer won again the Yokohama Trophy race, beating Mehdi Bennani who obtained his best result ever – sixth – in WTCC, while local driver Jo Rosa-Merszei claimed his second victory in the Jay-Ten Trophy, finishing 14th and 15th in first and second race, respectively.
André Couto, who was seventh on the grid for the first race, had a bad run as he and Alain Menu clashed at Mandarin Bend, calling out the safety car. The local driver spun across the track and into the barriers before colliding with Menu – whose Chevrolet car was then left stranded on the track.
Menu gave up for the second race while Couto fought to get back on track, but it didn’t last long as he had engine problems in lap one of the second race.
It was a Chevrolet showdown over the weekend as Rob and Yvan were continuously quicker than any other driver. 
“We were faster last year and even better this year. We have an advantage compared to the others and I believe the Chevrolet will still be the team to beat [next year]. But I’m sure the others will work out a way to close that gap,” Muller said.
“Next year it will be harder, because I think we just had a better preparation this year. With other teams having better preparation with the 1.6 turbo and with more manufacturers, I think we’re going to see a few more cars in the fight next year,” added Huff.