Alain Menu and Tom Coronel claimed one victory apiece in WTCC’s first visit to Suzuka that was blessed by a couple of close races and a good crowd (23,000 over the weekend).
In the first one, after four of his potential competitors were eliminated in a couple of crashes and thanks to his fair play agreement with Yvan Muller, Menu was able to pull out and created a gap that nobody was able to fill.
In the second race Coronel managed to resist the pressure from Muller and finally clinched his first victory in the ROAL Motorsport BMW. The second one for him in WTCC after that he scored in 2008 at Okayama, which proved that racing in Japan provides him with some extra motivations.
In terms of the championship fight Huff cut his gap from Muller by three points; the latter has still a 13-point lead with 100 points to be awarded.
Michel Nykjær won both races in the Yokohama Trophy and, most important, claimed his first, and well deserved WTCC podium. The Dane also climbed to third in the trophy’s standings, only 15 points behind the leader, his fellow countryman Kristian Poulsen.
The championship will resume in Shanghai, China, on November 6th for rounds 21 and 22.