Yvan Muller was pleased to finish his four year association with RML with another victory as he took his seventh win of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship on the streets of Macau.
Having dominated qualifying to take Pole Position by a clear second, the Frenchman was able to drive away from the rest of the field to record an untroubled victory, his second on the streets of Macau.
“Race 1 was (thankfully) relatively straight forward for me,” said Muller.”I made a good start and kept Monteiro behind and from there it was a case of maintaining concentration and consistency. It wasn’t an easy win, nothing in Macau is easy! But I am glad I managed a final win with my RML team – this was how I wanted to end what has been a fantastic career with them.”
The final race of the season, Mullers final race with the RML crew saw him line up ninth on the reverse grid and he was caught up in the mayhem ahead.
He had contact from the Honda of Tiago Monteiro on the second lap as the field started the line up San Francisco Hill – Muller hit the barrier on the outside but was able to continue before further contact later in the race.
Team-mate Tom Chilton had ground to a halt on the exit of Maternity and one of the guest drivers hit his stationary car causing a blockage on the circuit. The safety car had been deployed yet more of the local drivers failed to adhere to the yellow flags and piled into one another, with Muller’s car suffering damage to the left rear corner.
“Race two was much trickier, as expected when midfield. Macau is often with incidents and on such a tight track; you are sometimes powerless to avoid trouble. I had contact from behind when passing Tom’s parked Cruze but fortunately the red flag enabled us to get the damage straightened out and so I was able to continue,” the 2013 Champion added.
Once the #12 LUKOIL backed Chevrolet Cruze was rebuilt and the race was back underway, Muller took a sixth place finish to finish his dominant season off with an advantage of 191 points to his nearest rival.
He took sixth from the ALL-INKL.com Münnich Motorsport SEAT Leon of Marc Basseng on the approach to San Francisco Hill and afterwards, Muller concluded: “Overtaking isn’t easy here, so for the final laps I was watching Basseng, looking for a way through and finally it came. A little bit of a gamble but he was sensible and saw me coming so we both made it ok and I managed to reach 6th, which I am happy with.”
Team-mate Tom Chilton saw the opportunity of completing an RML 1-2 in the drivers’ standings disappear after hitting the Macau walls in race one via contact from fellow Chevrolet racer Pepe Oriola while race 2 saw him grind to a halt after issues with the exhausts on the #23 Chevrolet Cruze, the issues coming from contact earlier in the race.
He finished fifth in the drivers’ standings and was disappointed with how his Championship had finished, having arrived with the possibility of ending up vice Champion.
“I’m really disappointed with how this weekend ended. After the practice shunt, I was really relieved to have qualified P7 because it meant everything was still to play for and I was completely focussed on changing our fortunes today,” explained Chilton.
“I was told Tarquini was out of race 1 so suddenly it was very much game on for second in the championship standings, but I was taken out early on and was powerless to do anything. That gave advantage to James Nash on the points.
“The team yet again did a rebuild for the second race and huge credit to them for getting it done so quickly with limited time between. These guys really are the best in the paddock. And then race two was just another disaster – again contact put me out of the race and in both cases, I think it was unnecessary. I am just really upset that I was caught up in other people’s mistakes and my overall finish is now 5th in the standings. It’s a low note to end the season on.
“I’m sorry for my crew that we didn’t get to reap the rewards but moving on, this has been a fantastic first proper season for me in a competitive car and I’m really proud of how much we have achieved within such a short space of time together,” he concluded.