Rob Huff has been crowned as the 2012 World Touring Car Championship after finishing the eventful final round of the 2012 campaign in second, behind eventual winner Alain Menu.
Click here for the full Round 24 results.
Alain Menu took the final victory of the season in a race which saw a lengthy safety car period after an incident involving Yvan Muller and Alex MacDowall at Mandarin.
At the start, Norbert Michelisz used the advantage of the Rear Wheel Drive BMW 320TC to jump from third on the grid to the lead by the first corner while Menu was on a charge and completed the opening lap fourth.
Huff, meanwhile was back in ninth but soon started to make his way up the order and moved into fourth on the fourth lap after Muller and MacDowall had contact at the exit of Mandarin, the bamboo engineering car pitched heavily into the barriers and the Safety Car was deployed. MacDowall was significantly slower than Muller through the challenging Mandarin corner, allowing the Frenchman little time to avoid contact with the bamboo driver.
Once the Safety Car was withdrawn, it was deployed once again after just one lap of racing when Yokohama Independent contenders Michelisz and Pepe Oriola came together at Lisboa, with the Spanish youngster spinning the Zengő Motorsport driver into the barriers. Both drivers were out of the race, with fellow Independent title rival Stefano D’Aste also retiring further around the same lap.
The race was concluded under the safety car with Menu leading home a Chevrolet 1-2-3 in their final race as a works entry in the World Touring Car Championship.
Having secured the first podium for Honda in the opening race, Tiago Monteiro brought the JAS Motorsport run Civic home fourth with Darryl O’Young securing his second Yokohama Independents’ victory of the day in fifth. O’Young enjoyed his strongest-ever weekend in the WTCC by taking two fifth placed finishes at his ‘home’ circuit.
The top ten was completed by Franz Engstler, Alexey Dudukalo, Fredy Barth, Tom Boardman and Fernando Monje.
Huff took his first WTCC crown by 12 points from Menu with Muller third, 20 points behind his British team-mate. Michelisz secured his first Yokohama Independents’ title by 12 points from Oriola with Stefano D’Aste third.