Seat completes the pass of two

During the first Sunday race, Ryckard Rydell stood out from the start by managing to overtake Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx from the first corner, to place himself in the wake of the 320 Si of Augusto Farfus. Visibly advantaged on cold tires compared to its competitors, the Seat took the lead a few meters further on and never let go afterwards. Behind, the fight raged between Yvan Muller and Priaulx, but the Briton finally had the last word and managed to defend his fourth place, demonstrating that we also had to count on the BMWs this weekend.

An exit from the track by Tarquini on the ninth lap a little later offered the last step of the podium to the Englishman, as well as fourth position to Muller. At the end of the race, Priaux came back like a bomb on his teammate but ultimately failed a few tenths behind the Brazilian.

After Rydell's clear victory in the first race, it was his reigning World Champion teammate who won in the second.

Starting from fifth place on the grid, Yvan Muller took the lead at mid-race by overtaking Jordi Gené on the eighth lap, after consecutive errors from Tarquini and Jorg Müller. The Frenchman then managed to not give in to repeated attacks from Andy Priaulx and therefore won for the second time this season. Rydell, author of a superb weekend, recovered the last leg of the podium.

“Every victory is difficult. », declared Muller upon arrival. “But this one really was, I had to hold on to be able to overtake several competitors and resist Andy, who was very fast behind me. I gave my best and it worked until the end.”

Augusto Farfus finished fourth ahead of Sergio Hernandez, Alex Zanardi, Jordi Gené and Gabriele Tarquini. The start of the season was decidedly difficult for Chevrolet, as none of the three Cruzes finished in the points. The misfortunes also continue for Tiago Monteiro, forced to give up in the first round, since he has still not scored a single point this year.

At the end of this second round of the WTCC championship, Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell now share the championship lead, with 30 points each. They are 10 points ahead of Farfus and 11 over Tarquini. Andy Priaulx is a little further away, at 14 points.