José María López will celebrate back-to-back FIA World Touring Car Championship titles* in twilight when Thailand stages the all-action WTCC for the first time from 31 October-1 November.
The second of two 11-lap races at the state-of-the-art Chang International Circuit in Buriram will take place at dusk under floodlights from 17h30 local time on 1 November with Citroën driver López on the cusp of joining an elite group of drivers to have successfully defended their WTCC crown.
However, if the 32-year-old Argentine is to follow Andy Priaulx (WTCC champion from 2005-2007) and Yvan Muller (2010-2011) and leave Thailand as champion for a second time then he must add to his season tally of 396 points, which has handed him a 75-point margin over team-mate Muller with four races left.
While there are myriad points permutations to consider, if López wins race one from pole then he’s champion regardless of Muller’s result. And should Muller triumph in the Thai opener having started from top spot with López finishing second from P2 or P3 on the grid, then López needs to finish race two third or higher to be champion, even if Muller wins the second race. But with eight wins, five poles and nine fastest laps, López is the driver in the ascendancy and has triumphed at all of the new-for-2015 venues used so far this season.
And López isn’t the only driver eying WTCC title gold in Thailand, which has never hosted an FIA world championship event before. Norbert Michelisz holds a 25-point advantage in the race for the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy and the Zengő Motorsport Honda pilot could secure the accolade if results go his way in Buriram. However, the championship within a championship for independent racers isn’t the limit of the Hungarian’s ambitions with fourth overall in the final standings and the prize of finishing ahead of fellow Honda drivers Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini more than realistic targets.
In the battle for the outright runner-up spot, Muller is 39 points clear of fellow Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb, who has excelled during his second season in the WTCC since switching from the World Rally Championship. The legendary Frenchman, who recently announced his participation on January’s Dakar cross-country rally in South America, has claimed three wins in 2015 – just two less than four-time WTCC champion Muller.
Ma Qing Hua, who completes the Citroën Total WTCC line-up, is also a winner this year and is fourth in the points, while Hugo Valente (Campos Racing), Rob Huff (LADA Sport Rosneft) and Tom Chilton (ROAL Motorsport) complete the current top 10 having all claimed podium finishes. Mehdi Bennani (Sébastien Loeb Racing) is P11 in the standings heading to Thailand with Dutch duo Tom Coronel and Nicky Catsburg next up. Stefano D’Aste (ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport), LADA’s Le Mans 24 Hours class-winning Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and privateer Grégoire Demoustier (Craft-Bamboo Racing) will also be in action in Buririam with Thai WTCC rookie Tin Sritrai partnering Valente and John Filippi at Campos Racing.