The Italian driver and legend of touring car racing, Gabriele Tarquini, has won the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in Macau after finishing in 10th place; the last of the three races of the weekend.
Starting with a 39-point lead for the last racing weekend of the season, Tarquini managed to collect just enough points (15) to obtain a three point lead and be crowned as the first- ever WTCR champion.
As the point difference at the end might indicate, title rival Yvan Muller was not willing to concede the title away easily, collecting a total of 51 points over the three races of the weekend, including 20 on the first one.
Finishing fourth in Race 3 yesterday was not enough to beat Tarquini, who, at 56 years old, has once again emerged top in the world of touring cars.
Muller’s points ended up being more useful to give MRacing – YMR the team title, coincidentally with the same three point difference over the Tarquini’s BRC Racing Team.
Starting from a good position in the last race, Esteban Guerrieri, who was in the Honda Civic made a steady race, starting better than Rob Huff in the Volkswagen and taking the lead from the last, right from the first meters.
Trying to protect his advantage as much as possible, Tarquini managed to overtake the Hyundai of Thed Bjork and climbed one position to ninth place. The move added pressure on Muller, meaning that he needed to finish in the top two to win the championship.
Such hopes were almost put aside when, on lap three, Aurelien Panis crashed out, forcing the entry of the safety car. Although when the race restarted, Bjork quickly moved past Tarquini to the original position, that was more than enough as there was no way for Muller to move up further.
The race then turned into a three-car battle between Guerrieri, Huff and Audi’s Jean-Karl Vernay for the win, with Vernay keeping Huff away from the possibility to attack Guerrieri, even if the first was clearly faster on lap times than the Honda of Guerrieri.
On lap 11, Vernay made a mistake in Lisboa and crashed into the wall, handing the third position of the championship to Guerrieri.
With only two laps to go, the safety car was once again deployed as Zsolt Szabo crashed out at Fisherman’s Bend, with no time left to restart the race. The race came to an end with Guerrieri winning ahead of Huff and Norbert Michelisz.
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