SEAT out of title hunt for first time since 2005

With SEAT’s Gabriele Tarquini crashing out of race two, the Italian ended his championship challenge and SEAT go to the final round with no chance of winning the drivers title for the first time since 2005.

The Spanish manufacturer officially withdrew from the championship this season, but SUNRED Engineering picked up the mantle with support from SEAT Sport, with the turbo diesel powered championship winning car of 2008 & 2009.

Leading the championship early on, the SR-Sport team were as much a threat as the remaining two manufacturer teams of BMW and Chevrolet.

Tarquini led the standings going into his home race at Monza, but from there, former SEAT team-mate Yvan Muller took the championship lead and has never looked back.

A disastrous round for SEAT in Germany saw Gabriele drop to third in the championship behind Andy Priaulx, with just a ninth-place finish from the weekend.

In Japan, battling with Farfus for third in race one and dropping back in the rain, and then crashing out of the lead in race two put paid to the 2009 champion’s title bid, and now the best that Tarquini can hope for is to grab second place from Andy Priaulx at Macau, who lies 16 points ahead of him, whilst not falling behind a charging Rob Huff.

SEAT Customer Technologies is still mathematically in the running for the manufacturers’ championship, but with a 76 point gap to Chevrolet and only 86 remaining, it’s next to impossible for SEAT to defend its title.