WTCC: Nice victory for Tiago Monteiro in race 2
Tiago Monteiro scored his second victory in 2015 after winning WTCC race 2 at Motegi Twin Ring. Portuguese driver behind the wheel of a Honda Civic took the lead at the start and after that, he was in no trouble on the way to glory.
Race 2 was more interesting than the first one. Tiago Monteiro jumped from third to take a lead ahead of Hugo Valente, Nick Catsburg dropped from second to eighth, while Rob Huff in Lada, with some nice maneuvers, moved up to fourth from 13th!
Race 1 winner and championship leader Jose Maria Lopez was forced to retire in lap 2 due to a broken wheel and that was a chance for Yvan Muller, but Citroen driver was at third, 5.2s behind Monteiro. However, the unlucky Frenchmen had to retire after the bonnet of his Citroen C-Elysee was knocked after contact with Hugo Valente.
With title contenders out of the race, driving became more intense. Sebastien Loeb pushed hard to get into top three, but Huff defended confidently. In the meantime, Norbert Michelisz and Nick Catsburg also retired due to technical problems and damage caused during the start of the race.
With five laps to go, Tiago Valente was straight on the way to victory as he was 10s clear of Valente. Honda driver smoothly passed first through finish line, beating Valente by 9.2s, while Huff was third 10.9s behind the winner. After a dramatic battle, Loeb clinched fourth place in front of Gabriele Tarquini who will probably get a penalty after causing an incident during the race.
Ma Qng Hua, Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel, debutant Nicolas Lapierre and Stefano D’Aste scored the remaining points.
