Tarquini wins and retakes the lead in the points

It was a lights-to-flag victory for Gabriele Tarquini in the WTCR second race at the Slovakia Ring, the fourth for the Italian driver so far in the season. And this also meant that he retook the leadership in the Drivers’ championship, three points clear of Yvan Muller who finished third behind an impressive Norbert Nagy.
Unlike in this morning’s Race 1, when he spoiled his pole position with a poor start, Tarquini was the best to sprint ahead when the red lights went off and led pole sitter Nagy into Turn 1. The young Hungarian was able to keep Muller at bay to retain the second place.
Tarquini managed to create a small gap and the top three positions remained frozen for the rest of the race.
Behind them, however, there were close and tough battles for the other positions, with plenty of overtaking moves and contacts.
Eventually, Race 1 winner Pepe Oriola claimed another brilliant result, finishing fourth a few inches ahead of Benjamin Lessennes, John Filippi and Norbert Michelisz who had recovered from tenth on the reverse grid.
Frédéric Vervisch, Esteban Guerrieri and Yann Ehrlacher rounded out the top ten and they were followed by Thed Björk who elbowed his way through the field from the 19^th position on the grid. Team Mulsanne’s rookie Kevin Ceccon was classified 12^th as he also recovered from 17^th at the start.
Tarquini is the new leader of the standings, with 202 points, followed by Muller 199 and Ehrlacher 171.
Race results remain suspended pending and appeal lodged by Münnich Motorsport and Boutsen Ginion Racing against the exclusion of their Honda cars from the Qualifying for the same technical infringement that resulted in the disqualification of three Hyundai cars from yesterday’s Qualifying.
Race 3 will take place tomorrow at 11:45 (CET) with Michelisz on pole position.