MotorSportVoice - 2009 - WTCC Portugal

A fast street circuit mixed with bright sunshine for practice and qualifying, torrential downpours for warm-up, a greasy track for race one and and a warm dry track for race two - all meant that we should be expecting some fantastic racing from the World Touring Car Championship in Portugal.

Sadly with all the ingredients in place, the outcome was somewhat lacking. Gabriele Tarquini snatched pole position from Britain's Rob Huff by less than a tenth of a second. The rolling start saw the first of many incidents which hampered racing throughout the races. Jaap van Lagen made contact with Sergio Hernandez which resulted in both hitting the pit wall with some force. Hernandez was taken to hospital for X-Rays on his ankle but was thankfully shown to not have any broken bones. The safety car was put on standby to cover this incident but before long Augusto Farfus clipped the back end of Alain Menu's Chevrolet Cruze pushing him into the wall. This caused a multi-car pile-up and blocked the narrow Porto street circuit. The race was immediately suspended. The restart was a somewhat processional affair, the only chance of anything happening was with Andy Priaulx. He was beginning to close in on SEAT's Yvan Muller as the race entered the closing stages. He was, however, a victim of BMW's team-orders. With their best placed driver Augusto Farfus driving from back in the pack, after a drive through penalty for the incident with Alain Menu, he was still the best placed BMW in the Championship. The factory backed BMWs of Andy Priaulx and Jorg Muller were told to pull over and allow many to pass, allowing Farfus to move into eighth, and thus a point as well pole position for race two. Rob Huff and Yvan Muller completed the podium. To repay his team Farfus duly delivered victory in the second race, which was also the 100th WTCC race. Again the race was somewhat of a procession, broken up by a safety car period and another race suspension. The safety car was scrambled as a result of Gabriele Tarquini trying to pass Nicola Larini, the move putting them both into the barrier. Independent driver Mehdi Bennani ran wide around the incident but as he rejoined collected Tom Boardman as well. The race suspension was caused when Franz Engstler came together with the unlucky Alain Menu, the latter ending up sideways across the track with two wheels missing. The race resumed with one lap behind the safety car and then a two lap dash to the finish. Farfus held on to his lead, and took a victory which will only be remembered for the fact it was the 100th race. Yvan Muller enjoyed a great weekend as he claimed a second, which was gifted to him by team mate Rickard Rydell who finished third.

The Intercontinental Rally Challenge heads to Russia next weekend, but championship leader Kris Meeke won't be continuing his winning streak as he and his Kronos team have elected to not attend the event. Heading down under the V8 Supercars head to the brand new event in Townsville, which looks set to be a fantastic spectacle on and off the track.