Gabriele Tarquini wins wild final race in Japan

Gabriele Tarquini has won the final race of the weekend at Suzuka, in a race packed with contact, with the Italian storming to a 39-point lead in the drivers’ championship with his main contenders struggling to score.

Tarquini in the BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR leapt into the lead at the start ahead of Team Mulsanne’s Kevin Ceccon, with the Alfa Romeo driver dropping behind the Münnich Honda of Yann Ehrlacher and Aurélien Comte’s Peugeot.

Ceccon quickly recovered ground, passing Comte at the end of lap one and then passing Ehrlacher’s Honda through the first corner, and set about chasing down Tarquini’s Hyundai, while Ehrlacher’s Honda soon stopped with a technical problem.

The race soon erupted, with Campos Racing’s Pepe Oriola and YMR’s Yvan Muller finding themselves in the centre of the action.

Oriola had first passed Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai with contact at the end of the first lap, and then moved up to eighth when Esteban Guerrieri’s Münnich Honda slammed into the side of Yvan Muller’s car at the hairpin, with Muller losing ground to Oriola’s Cupra TCR.

On lap six, Kevin Ceccon took the lead from Gabriele Tarquini just after it was confirmed that the Italian would receive a five-second time penalty for an out-of-position start, while Ehrlacher dropped out of third with a puncture and officially falls out of contention for the drivers’ championship.

Meanwhile, Guerrieri was holding up a train of cars with Oriola, Muller, Huff and Michelisz right behind squabbling over the position, with Oriola and Huff cutting the chicane on lap seven.

Oriola managed to make his way past Guerrieri on lap eight, while Huff was able to sneak ahead of Muller and also began to battle Guerrieri, taking position as the Argentinian ran wide, finally out of tyres.

With two laps to go, the bunched up pack saw more contact, with Muller then hit by Michelisz’s Hyundai and ran out wide, dropping the Frenchman out of contention for the points.

Oriola, also a key title contender, found his championship charge hit when it was deemed he’d cut the track too many times and was handed a drive-through penalty, which dropped him to 19th.

There was one final move as Mehdi Bennani closed down and passed Aurélien Panis’ Audi for fourth on the last lap, while Ceccon passed the chequered flag first, but with his five second penalty dropped to third, with Tarquini inheriting the victory and Comte promoted to second.

Tarquini’s win, with Muller not scoring means the Italian now leads the championship by a sizable 39 points going to the season finale at Macau in three weeks’ time where 87 points are up for grabs.