Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller took an important step in their fight to regain their WTCC titles today. The Italian circuit of Imola hosted the 10th round of this year`s WTCC and the SEAT Sport team drivers took their León TDi decrated in the Repsol colours to two magnificent victories, with two one-twos included. Gabriele Tarquini won the first race followed by Yvan Muller, whilst Muller won the second ahead of Tarquini.
The efficiency of the Repsol drivers, who occupied the first three positions in practice, means that they have now opened up a gap over their rivals in the overall. Tarquini now has a 7 point advantage over his teammate Yvan Muller, and 18 over Augusto Farfus; and SEAT has increased its lead in the constructors`championship over BMW to 21 points.
The two races were very similar and had the same two stars. In the first Tarquini, in pole position, took the lead with Yvan Muller right behind him. The two drivers set a fast pace which none of their rivals was able to follow, this allowed them to stay in the same positions to the end of the race. Rydell, Gené & Monteiro were eliminated in an incident that involved several cars.
In the second race Alain Menú was the first leader but Muller and Tarquini fought back spectacularly and they moved into the first two place after overtaking the six cars they had in front of them when the grid was inverted. The two SEAT León TDI set a fast pace once again and kept a big enough gap over their rivals to get another one-two. behind them Jordi Gené & Rickard Rydell fought back from the rear of the grid to finish 5th and 7th respectively something that allowed them to win more points.
The next date in the WTCC, the penultimate round of the championship, takes place at the Japanese circuit of Okayama on 1st November.
