WTCC @ MACAU // TARQUINI & SEAT TAKE WORLD TITLE

Italian Gabriele Tarquini became the oldest ever man to capture an FIA World Championship title today at Macau. The 47 year old SEAT driver stayed clear of trouble during the two WTCC races to claim his first drivers title, while manufacturer Seat retained their slender points advantage over BMW to register their second successive crown... [read more]

The hugely experienced and amiable Italian was overjoyed at the end of a shortened race two and said "Maybe this was my last chance to be world champion and I took it. It was a tough season especially against great drivers like Yvan (Muller) and Augusto (Farfus). I became the champion without knowing – the team was smiling and crying but I didn’t have a radio so realised a little bit later. I started the weekend with a crash which is obviously not the best way to win a championship. The mechanics were fantastic and spent all night and one day to re-build the car better than it was before! I must say thank you to the team who are unbelievable.”

With Rob Huff taking a lights to flag victory in race one Tarquini (Above) moved past team-mate Jordi Gene to take second place at the flag effectively eliminating Augusto Farfus in the battle for the drivers championship.
With this in mind Farfus dropped back to take eigth place to take pole for race two hoping to now aid the BMW squad in their manufacturer's fight with Seat.

A rather worse for wear Yvan Muller quite plainly suffering from his qualifying accident came home in 5th place thus keeping his hopes of a second sucsessive crown alive for race two.

Race two saw Farfus and Jorg Muller (Above) record an easy one -two finish for BMW but with Yvan Muller only 3rd Tarquini wrapped up the championship with a solid fith place in a race that was not to go it's full distance due to a large shunt involving Franz Engstler on lap 9. With the race not restarting due to medical crews dealing with Engstler who had broken a collar bone, Seat had done enough and duly recorded their 2nd Manufacturers win.

With the Seat of Tom Coronel collecting the win in the 2009 Independents Trophy all in all Seat can be extremely happy with what effectively has been a tremendous year for them. The spanish squad are however scaling down their WTCC operation for 2010 and may well be just running only pair of Leon's come Curitiba next March.

Race One Top Ten Results:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Robert Huff Chevrolet 23m02.627s
2. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 7.952s
3. Jordi Gene SEAT 8.996s
4. Alain Menu Chevrolet 10.328s
5. Yvan Muller SEAT 13.534s
6. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 15.517s
7. Jorg Muller BMW 15.782s
8. Augusto Farfus BMW 15.967s
9. Alex Zanardi BMW 16.301s
10. Sergio Hernandez BMW 16.527s

Race Two Top Ten Results:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Augusto Farfus BMW 22m20.166s
2. Jorg Muller BMW 0.801s
3. Yvan Muller SEAT 1.201s
4. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1.980s
5. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 3.815s
6. Jordi Gene SEAT 5.018s
7. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 5.359s
8. Robert Huff Chevrolet 5.895s
9. Alex Zanardi BMW 6.167s
10. Rickard Rydell SEAT 6.712s


WTCC 2009 Final Drivers Championship Results :

Drivers:

01 Gabriele Tarquini 127
02 Yvan Muller 123
03 Augusto Farfus 113
04 Andy Priaulx 84
05 Robert Huff 80
06 Jörg Müller 76
07 Rickard Rydell 64
08 Jordi Gené 48


WTCC 2009 Final Manafacturers Championship Results :

1. SEAT 314
2. BMW 311
3. CHEVROLET 215
4. LADA 83


Photos: WTCC Media/SEAT Sport
Editorial: Neil Tozer