The urban circuit in Oporto, Portugal, was the setting for today`s two accident filled races, the 7th round of the WTCC, which however was a big success for the Repsol drivers; with a victory for Gabriele Tarquini in the first race, two visits to the podium for Yvan Muller, another for Rickard Rydell and both Jordi Gené & Tiago Monteiro among the points. SEAT and its drivers stay at the top of the two overall classifications in the WTCC.
The team stayed true to its principles and employed good teamwork, involving the drivers and engineers, to once again get some good results. The race in Portugal had an additional difficulty as the SEAT Sport team had never driven in Oporto in the León TDI. The work to set the car up for the free practice was especially efficient and the performance of the Repsol drivers got better as the weekend went by. The team won again and the points harvest is very valuable as it was demonstrated that this track did not pardon even the slightest mistake.
Two accidents on the first lap obliged the first race to be stopped, after the track was cleared Gabriele Tarquini took control, fending off attacks from Robert Huff. The Briton gave up after a couple of laps as Yvan Muller was looking to attack and move into 2nd position. Given the difficulties typical on an urban circuit, Muller preferred to defend his valuable 3rd place instead of taking risks. In the chasing group Monteiro got an excellent 4th place in front of a home crowd, with Jordi Gené & Rickard Rydell 6th and 7th.
In the second race Rickard Rydell, Jordi Gené & Tiago Monteiro fell into place behind the leader Farfus, waiting for Muller & Tarquini to arrive after starting further back. The Frenchman was able to overtake the two Chevrolets driven by Larini & Menú to position themselves behind their teammates, whilst Tarquini was eliminated when he tried to overtake his rivals.
