BMW and Chevrolet share glory at Brands Hatch

Jörg Müller of BMW Team Germany and Alain Menu for Chevrolet claimed a win apiece after two breathtaking races at Brands Hatch. The German drivers has become the eleventh different driver to step on the highest podium after the first 14 rounds of the season. As for Menu, this was his second win of the season and his third in the WTCC at Brands Hatch in three years.

Yvan Muller claimed a brilliant second position in the first race, keeping the reigning world champion Andy Priaulx at bay for the whole 14 laps, and managed to steal the championship lead from his SEAT Sport team-mate Gabriele Tarquini.

The Frenchman has now got a two-point lead, but Priaulx, despite a retirement in the second race, has climbed to third in the points and he is only 16 points off the lead.

In the Manufacturers' Championship SEAT is still leading, but BMW have cut their gap to 29 points.

The championship will resume in Oschersleben, Germany, for rounds 15 and 16, after the Summer break on August 31st.  

Jörg Müller inherited his first victory of the season when Robert Huff went off while leading due to tyre problems. At the start Augusto Farfus led from pole position, with Alain Menu and Robert Huff behind him. However, within seconds it was all change as there was contact between Farfus and Menu, which caused the poleman to spin. He was then hit by Larini and went off into the gravel trap and smacked into the wall.

Huff took the lead with Müller behind him, Yvan Muller in third and BMW's Andy Priaulx in fourth. Huff built up a two second lead over Müller as the pair pulled away from the field. Priaulx, Muller and Menu fought for the final podium position right up until the chequered flag, but the reigning world champion could not find a way through.

In the final moments Nicola Larini suffered a puncture, and as he entered the pits the same thing happened to the leader Huff. The Briton was forced to pit and handed the win to Müller, falling to the back of the pack. This promoted Yvan Muller to second, and Priaulx to third. Menu slowed down near the end of the race and was overtaken by Zanardi, Tom Coronel, Félix Porteiro and Gabriele Tarquini, who finished fourth to seventh. Menu took eighth position and pole for the second race.

Having had a good fight with James Thompson for the 12th position, Robert Dahlgren braked too hard into a corner and embedded his Volvo C30 into the gravel trap. Stefano D'Aste took the Independents win of the first race ahead of his championship rival Sergio Hernández. 

Alain Menu gave Chevrolet something to smile about by winning the second race. However, it was not easy, because although he started from pole he did not keep the lead at the start. Félix Porterio took the lead from third on the grid on into the first corners. The safety car had to be deployed when there was a clash between Tom Coronel, James Thompson and Jordi Gené.

Porteiro led the pack into the restart on lap 6, but Menu pushed his way past to take the lead into turn 1. This is how the top two remained until the end of the race. Menu built up a lead, but to avoid the tyre problems he eased his pace in the final laps and managed to take the win followed closely by Porteiro, with Alessandro Zanardi in third.

Jörg Müller overtook Gabriele Tarquini for fourth on lap 8 and the BMW driver completed an extremely good weekend; Tarquini scored some valuable points towards the championship.

Augusto Farfus finished in sixth position after performing some fantastic overtaking moves to come up from twenty-fourth on the grid. He was even challenging Tarquini for fifth as they crossed the line.

Stefano D'Aste won the Independents' trophy again; he finished seventh overall with Sergio Hernández him in eighth position, which demonstrated that the best Independent cars were able to match the pace of the other cars.

Andy Priaulx suffered a puncture which took him out of seventh position. However the British driver leaves his home meeting in third place in the championship.

- Fabio Ravaioli, FIA WTCC - photos FIA WTCC