James Nash takes his second career win at Porto
bamboo-engineering’s James Nash took his second career victory in the World Touring Car Championship in dominant fashion at Porto, holding up to an eight second lead at one point over reigning world champion Rob Huff.
The 26-year-old got away well from the standing start and managed to hold off the two Münnich Motorsport SEATs of Marc Basseng and Rob Huff, with Huff able to pass his team-mate and move up into second position.
Tom Chilton made a good start in the RML Chevrolet from seventh and was up to sixth ahead of Pepe Oriola, but the Spaniard managed to dive down the inside at Turn 16 later on the lap which pushed Chilton offline and he dropped four positions to Oriola, team-mate Yvan Muller, ROAL BMW’s Tom Coronel and the Proteam BMW of Mehdi Bennani.
On lap three, Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjaer moved up to fourth position passing Lada’s James Thompson at the final chicane, and then repeated the move on the following lap to move up to third.
From then on, Nykjaer’s progress was halted, unable to pass Rob Huff’s SEAT for second, though Huff was once forced to cut the final chicane to defend his position on lap five which is under investigation by the stewards.
Pepe Oriola fought hard with Lada’s James Thompson, passing the Briton on lap four but by cutting the track and was forced to give the position back, and only just managed to do so without allowing RML’s Yvan Muller past.
Oriola was eventually able to get the better of Thompson on lap seven at the final chicane and gained one final spot from Marc Basseng to finish fourth.
On lap ten, Fredy Barth’s Wiechers-Sport BMW crashed out at Turn 13 which was managed under waved yellows.
Nash went on to take his second career win with Huff second and Nykjaer third.
Yvan Muller now leads the Championship by 122 points over Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjaer. James Nash moves up to third in the standings, 144 points behind Muller, whilst Rob Huff moves ahead of Tarquini in fifth, who leaves Porto only scoring one point for his fifth place in qualifying.
The next round of the Championship is in Argentina on August 4th.
