Eurosport - Mon, 22 Jun 15:19:00 2009
Alessandro Zanardi and Sergio Hernandez took the spoils in a BMW clean-sweep at WTCC Brno.
Zanardi followed up last year's victory in the Czech Republic with another win in an event-filled first race before Hernandez claimed a maiden win in Race Two.
Starting from third on the grid, Zanardi managed to avoid a massive accident involving some of his fellow BMW drivers at the start of Race One, while Joerg Mueller stormed through the field to take second ahead of Gabriele Tarquini.
On paper, it was Augusto Farfus's race after the Brazilian had secured pole position, but after the start he veered left and collected Andy Priaulx, Robert Huff, Nicola Larini and Jordi Gené on his way to the gravel trap.
The safety car came out for two laps, at which point Zanardi was lying second. Moments after the restart, the BMW man took the lead and soon pulled away.
Mueller ensured his podium place coming from 11th at the restart - he did so with some fantastic and fair driving.
Felix Porteiro had a strong race to take the independent win and seventh overall.
Yvan Muller crossed the line eighth and took pole for Race Two, but he was unable to make that advantage count as he was pipped to victory by Hernandez, who claimed his first WTCC victory.
Muller's SEAT Sport team-mate Tiago Monteiro took third place with Porteiro finishing fourth as the independents' winner.
Hernandez got off to a good start, as did Porteiro, who led the race early on with Muller dropping to third.
Spaniard Hernandez waited until the third lap to make his move on Porteiro, taking the lead while his compatriot was also overtaken by Muller.
A nail biting duel for fifth place ensued with Mueller, Tarquini, Rickard Rydell and Priaulx, who worked his way up from 16th on the grid, all involved.
After bumper-to-bumper action the SEATs eventually led the BMWs with Tarquini taking fifth, Rydell sixth, Mueller seventh and Priaulx eighth.
Despite the double win for BMW, the final outcome was not as rewarding as the German manufacturer had hoped in terms of championship points.
BMW's best-placed drivers - Farfus and Priaulx - collected just one point (Priaulx in Race Two), enabling Muller to further stretch the margin of his lead at the top of the standings.
Muller now leads by 10 points from Tarquini, with Farfus a further two points behind.
As a partial consolation BMW cut the gap from SEAT to eight points in the Manufacturers' Championship.
The championship will resume in Porto, Portugal, on July 5, for rounds 13 and 14.
Comment 1 - 5 of 5
Recently, I discovered a hot place -- Tallfinder Co m- -- where many sexy singles who like sports and chatting- there. I'm an open minded girl from UK, I also like- discuss sports and love with handsome guys on it.
in anything BUT A F1 car ALEX REIGNS SUPREME TALENTED AND VASTLY UNDER RATED BY ALL BECAUSE OF F1 FAILURE..GO GET EM ALEX
Any time Alex competes, he wins! Truth be told, if those guys able to use both legs cannot beat him, they had better look for something else to do. Were he not disabled, he should win the majority of the races he enters, he is that good. God bless him!
Isnt it great to see how how well Farfus turns pole into a great start, HA HA HA, the crash king has struck again. When will everyone realise he should only be stock car driving & why are BMW wasting their time with him when there are so many other drivers out there who could do a beter job?
Well done to Alessandro, another great win. Lets hope he has a great race 2 & gets another good result.
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account