Rob Huff takes his second win of the year in Japan Race 2
Rob Huff won the second race of the weekend at Suzuka in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen, finishing ahead of Campos Cupra’s Pepe Oriola, while Gabriele Tarquini retakes the points lead after finishing fifth, Huff’s first victory since the second weekend of the season in Hungary back in April.
Huff jumped into the lead at the start, battling side-by-side around pole-sitter Pepe Oriola’s Cupra around the first corner, while behind there was trouble between Huff’s team-mate Mehdi Bennani and the Münnich Honda of Esteban Guerrieri, with the Argentinian propelled into the barriers and the safety car quickly deployed.
The race resumed on lap three, with Huff and Oriola breaking away from the Comtoyou Racing Audi of Denis Dupont, while Race 1 winner Kevin Ceccon showed he had good race pace again, overtaking Bennani for eighth place.
Michelisz then overtook Dupont before the end of the lap and began to close in on the leading pair, while Dupont was left to defend against his Audi team-mate Aurélien Panis.
On lap seven, Ceccon overtook his rival from yesterday’s race, Aurélien Comte’s Peugeot for seventh, and then set about closing down on the BRC Racing Team Hyundai of Gabriele Tarquini.
With three laps to go, Dupont suddenly lost pace and dropped three spots, falling behind Panis, Tarquini and Ceccon, going on to finish seventh.
Up front, Huff was cruising to victory, while Oriola continued to fight off Michelisz’s Hyundai, with Oriola scoring key points which heeps the Spaniard in realistic contention for the title, now back up to fourth ahead of Vernay.
Huff won by 1.4 seconds, while Tarquini’s fifth place means he moves back into a clear lead of the championship, ten points clear of Yvan Muller who finished just outside of the points in 11th, one place up from where he started in his YMR Hyundai.
Race 3 follows at 12:30 JST (04:30 CET).
