Gabriele Tarquini wins WTCC at the age of 47! BTCC 94 ETCC 03 WTCC 09 WOOOO!!!!
No one is more deserving and its been 18 years in the making. Major congrats!
Farfus wins race, Tarquini takes title
By Jonathan Noble Sunday, November 22nd 2009, 06:14 GMT
Augusto Farfus won an incident-filled final round of the World Touring Car Championship in Macau on Sunday, but all eyes were on Gabriele Tarquini who clinched the drivers' title.
Farfus led away cleanly from pole position and held an advantage throughout the early stages of the race from BMW team-mate Jorg Muller, who himself was fighting off the close attention of SEAT duo Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro. Behind them, Tarquini had moved up fifth on lap seven when Jordi Gene slowed.
The battle at the front was interrupted by a safety car on lap three, when Tom Boardman crashed in the Solitude Esses, and then the race was red-flagged at the end of lap eight when there was a spectacular crash at the R Bend final corner.
Felix Porteiro ran wide and hit the barriers, before his car was swiped by Franz Engstler's BMW. Engstler's car was then left stationary in the middle of the track where it was collected heavily by local driver Andre Couto.
With debris all over the track there was no option but to halt the race and, after a brief delay, it was decided that the event would not be restarted.
It meant that Tarquini's fifth placed finish was enough for him to take the WTCC crown, with his SEAT team doing enough to take the manufacturers' title.
Tarquini had been suffering an engine misfire in the second race so was nervous about his chances of taking the title if there had been a restart - so was relieved that his accidents earlier in the weekend and the late drama had not hit his title chances.
"It is fantastic," said Tarquini. "I had some crashes in practice and qualifying, which isn't the best way to approach the weekend in Macau, but the team did a fantastic job to rebuild the car."
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Augusto Farfus BMW 22m20.166s
2. Jorg Muller BMW 0.801s
3. Yvan Muller SEAT 1.201s
4. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1.980s
5. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 3.815s
6. Jordi Gene SEAT 5.018s
7. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 5.359s
8. Robert Huff Chevrolet 5.895s
9. Alex Zanardi BMW 6.167s
10. Rickard Rydell SEAT 6.712s
11. Sergio Hernandez BMW 7.764s
12. Felix Porteiro BMW 8.290s
13. Andy Priaulx BMW 8.583s
14. Franz Engstler BMW 9.390s
15. Norbertu Taniguchi BMW 10.635s
16. Takayuki Aoki BMW 12.819s
17. Andre Couto SEAT 13.531s
18. Kit Meng Lei BMW 24.275s
19. Henry Ho BMW 27.175s
20. Jo Merszei BMW 27.530s
21. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2 laps
Retirements
Tom Coronel SEAT 4 laps
Tom Boardman SEAT 2 laps
Kristian Poulsen BMW 2 laps
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