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Menu takes third WTCC win in 2012

Alain Menu took a dominant victory in his Chevrolet Cruze in Portugal. The Swiss driver wrested the lead from pole-sitter Pepe Oriola (Seat Leon) and never looked like relinquishing his advantage, building a commanding lead in the opening laps.

Menu was able to back off slightly once his victory was assured and in the end he crossed the line 3.2s ahead of Oriola who in turn kept Tom Coronel and his rear-wheel-drive BMW 320 TC at arm’s-length.

Championship leader Yvan Muller (Chevrolet) came from behind due to the reversed grid and was stuck behind Gabriele Tarquini (Seat Leon) for several laps. He used the Italian’s slipstream to pass him on lap seven and eventually followed team-mate Rob Huff (Chevrolet) home in fifth place.

Huff made contact with Tarquini while passing him on lap eight and the resulting damage saw the ex-F1 driver retire with damage.

Alberto Cerqui (BMW) followed Muller home at close quarters but was unable to pass and then there was a gap to Alex MacDowall (Chevrolet), Tiago Monteiro (Seat) and Norbert Michaelisz (BMW) who rounded off the top ten finishing nose to tail. James Thompson stayed in touch in the LADA and crossed the line in 11^th position.

James Nash (Ford), Mehdi Bennani (BMW) and Tom Boardman (Seat) joined Tarquini on the retirement list.

WTCC Portimao Race Two Results

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	21m34.180s
2	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	+ 3.200s
3	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	+ 5.160s
4	Rob Huff	Chevrolet	+ 6.961s
5	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	+ 8.280s
6	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	+ 8.626s
7	Alex MacDowall	Bamboo Engineering	+ 15.007s
8	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing Team	+15.874s
9	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	+ 16.264s
10	Norbert Michelisz	Zengo Motorsport	+ 18.128s
11	James Thompson	LADA Sport	+ 19.832s
12	Charles Kaki NG	Zengo Motorsport	+ 23.542s
13	Darryl O’Young	Special Tuning Racing	+ 28.326s
14	Charles Kaki NG	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	+ 28.581s
15	Tom Chilton	Team AON	+ 30.552s
16	Aleksei Dudukalo	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	+ 50.602s
17	Pasquale Di Sabatino	Bamboo Engineering	+ 1 lap
18	Stefano D’Aste	Wiechers-Sport	+ 1 lap
R	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing Team	8 laps
R	James Nash	Team AON	7 laps
R	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	3 laps
R	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	2 laps