James Nash took his and bamboo-engineering’s first-ever World Touring Car Championship win in the second race at the Salzburgring, beating RML’s Yvan Muller by 1.438 seconds.
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Nash started from pole position and, despite losing the lead to Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz at the first chicane, the Brit retook the lead later around the opening lap. From there he led the rest of the race, with Michelisz unable to mount any significant challenge.
“It’s been a little while coming,” said Nash. “The team have given me a great car and the Chevrolet is fantastic. It couldn’t have gone better.
“It was vital [to build a gap]. The start wasn’t actually that bad – we’ve seen the Honda’s be really quick off the line so I was quite pleased with my start. Michelisz didn’t have a fantastic turn five so I got the run on him and it was crucial just to get past him and make that break.
“We didn’t have any problems with the tyres. I felt a vibration but I think it was just buffeting – but it sends a few worries through your head. I just wanted to manage a gap and I saw Yvan coming at the end… he was approaching quite quick!”
Muller finished in second, overtaking the Honda of Michelisz on the penultimate lap. Michelisz held on to take third and his third podium finish of the season.
Honda’s Tiago Monteiro had a steady race to fourth, with the Honda driver losing out to Muller towards the end of the race. Race one winner Michel Nykjær finished in fifth for Nika Racing, with a recovering Alex MacDowall in sixth.
MacDowall had lost out at the start of the race when, heading into turn one on the opening lap, Tom Coronel nudged the rear of Tom Chilton who in turn hit MacDowall. The result saw MacDowall, Chilton and Mehdi Bennani skip through the gravel. Chilton would later be forced to pit due to damage sustained in the incident, while MacDowall dropped down the order from 7th to 10th.
Tuenti Racing’s Pepe Oriola finished in seventh, having started from third, whilst Gabriele Tarquini ensured all three Honda’s finished in the points with eighth, after they all failed to score a point in the opening race.
Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff finished in ninth, with ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel once again completing the top ten.
Hugo Valente, Stefano D’Aste and Darryl O’Young all failed to finish the race as a result of damage sustained in race one.