MENU AND PRIAULX SHARES VICTORIES
Alain Menu and Andy Priaulx won one race apiece in Oschersleben today. The Swiss driver gave Chevrolet their first victory on the German track, while the Briton scored his sixth win of the season and moved further ahead in the Drivers‘ Championship. In the two latest meetings, Priaulx has recovered 38 points from the leader Yvan Muller, reducing his gap to 11, and now he has also jumped ahead of Gabriele Tarquini (who has scored only 2 points in the three latest races) in second position.
The first race was a Chevrolet show. Rob Huff and Menu took control from the beginning, but the former was later black-flagged for hitting the poleman Augusto Farfus at the start. This enabled Menu to claim his first victory of the year from Farfus and Muller.
In Race 2, Priaulx dashed ahead of the SEAT pair of Michelisz and Nykjær and kissed goodbye to the rest of the field on his way to a solo flight. Farfus and Muller finished far behind him in second and third after Monteiro was given a drive-through for hitting both Nykjær and Michelisz.
There was a Danish domination in both the Rookie Challenge and the Independents‘ Trophy, with Nykjær and Kristian Poulsen twice victorious in the respective categories. In the second race they were also able to obtain their best results so far in the overall classification: Nykjær fourth and Poulsen sixth.
Chevrolet still keeps a solid 55-point lead in the Manufacturers‘ Championship ahead of BMW, while SEAT Customers Technology is only six further points adrift.
The championship will resume for rounds 17 and 18 at Valencia, Spain on September 19.
MASS PENALTY FAVOURS PRIAULX
15 drivers were awarded 30-second time penalties for exceeding the maximum speed of 90 kmh allowed during the rolling start of the first race.
They were: Coronel, Nykjær, Michelisz, Poulsen, Hernández, Barth, Gené, Engstler, Bennani, D’Aste, Romanov and Taniguchi. However, the only change in the race results concerns Coronel (who slips from fourth to sixth) and the pair Monteiro-Priaulx who gain one position moving up to fourth and fifth respectively.
In terms of Championship points, this reduced the gap between Muller and Priaulx from 13 to 11.