WTCC : Rob Huff victory in the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

THE WORD TO THE WINNERSQuotes from Yvan Muller and Alain Menu, who shared race victories in Macau.

Yvan Muller – Race 1 winner: “I think I lost the championship at Shanghai
. Well done to Rob! He’s a great winner and deserved to be champion. For me it was good to finish the season by winning for the first time a race in Macau. I could have done it in the past, but for some reasons it didn’t happen. I finished third in the championship, for the sixth consecutive year on the podium after being three times first and twice second. Well done to the Chevy boys. It has a great time racing for them and I will cherish this memory for the rest of my life.” 
Alain Menu – Race 2 winner: “I knew that my only chance for claiming the title was to win the second race. I had a good start and a good first lap. Then I tried to overtake the cars at the front as soon as possible, because the race here is only nine lap long. I did all I could, and it was a good to finish the season as the winner of the last race. We had a very good year. Maybe with some more luck – or less bad luck – it could be even better. I cannot be disappointed to be vice-champion.”

THE WORD TO THE 2012 CHAMPIONRob Huff’s first words after his victory in the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

“I’m pretty speechless. I think it will take quite a while to sink in, if I will ever do. It has been an emotional weekend and an amazing day, especially considering that I have nearly spoiled everything with my incident in the first race. What a mistake from me it was! But we had an happy ending. So we will ignore that…


I had just overtaken Yvan on the inside of the Lisboa, and I was very happy about that. I did not have the time to rejoice, because half-a-lap later I lost the car and crashed.


I have to say thank you to the RML team, because they all jumped to my car when I pitted. There was quite a lot of damage to be fixed before the second race. They did a great job and for the second race my car was perfect.


Obviously in between the races I was a bit tense, but still I had a good margin of points and I knew that, even if Yvan or Alain were going to win the races, all I needed to do was to finish no lower than sixth. After the first safety car I was fifth behind Yvan, so it was just a matter of stay focused and not to make any other mistake…

The team made a gamble on me when they picked me up back in 2005 and I hope that today I have shown they had made the right decision.”

RACE 2 – MENU WINS, HUFF IS CHAMPIONAnother race full of drama in the streets of Macau sacred Rob Huff as the 2012 WTCC champion. After a very disappointing first race, Huff finished second behind the winner Alain Menu. And this was enough to grant him the points he needed.

Chevrolet ended their eight-year WTCC works programme in the perfect way, with three drivers on the podium 

of Macau’s second race and of the Drivers’ Championship.Darryl O’Young provided the icing on the cake by claiming his second race win of the day in the Yokohama Trophy after a series of incidents that eliminated Alex MacDowall (who crashed at high speed at the Mandarin bend), Norbert Michelisz and Pepe Oriola (who made contact and crashed at the Lisboa).With all the top-drivers out of the race, Michelisz maintained the lead and won the 2012 title.Tiago Monteiro completed his and Honda’s brilliant weekend with a fourth position behind the Chevy trio. 
Key momentsStart – Michelisz takes the lead from MacDowall, Oriola and MenuLap 1 – D’Aste hits Nh Kin Veng who spins and hits the wallLap 2 – MacDowall overtakes Michelisz for the lead; Menu overtakes Oriola for thirdLap 2 – Monteiro, Muller and Huff move up to fifth, sixth and seventh overtaking TarquiniLap 2 – Menu overtakes Michelisz for second Lap 3 – Menu takes the lead from MacDowall, who drops to fourth behind Michelisz and OriolaLap 4 – MacDowall and Muller make contact at the Mandarin bend, MacDowall spins and crashesLap 4 – Chilton loses control on MacDowell’s oil and crashesLap 4 – the safety car is deployedLap 5 – Menu leads, from Michelisz, Oriola, Huff, Muller, Monteiro, O’YoungLap 8 – the race resumes with three laps to go; Huff is champion for the time beingLap 9 – Michelisz and Oriola clash at the Lisboa bend and both crashLap 10 – the safety car is deployed a second timeLap 11 – the race ends behind the safety car, Huff is champion
WithdrawalsM. Bennani: race incident; A. MacDowall: race incident; N. Michelisz: race incident; P. Oriola: race incident; T. Chilton: race incident; T. Coronel: pierced radiator; H.Ho: clutch

RACE 1 – MULLER WINS, HUFF CRASHESThere was drama during the first race, as Rob Huff hits the wall and retired from the lead when he was only five laps from being crowned World Champion.

Yvan Muller inherited victory and Alain Menu finished second, which resulted in them reducing the gap in the championship standings. Before the final race, Huff is still leading, but his margin is now of only 17 points ahead of Muller and 19 ahead of Menu, with 25 still at stake.The same applied in the Yokohama Trophy, with the top three drivers in the standings – Norbert Michelisz, Pepe Oriola and Stefano D’Aste – who all remainedscoreless after being involved in the pile up on the first lap.Darryl O’Young managed to win the Yokohama Trophy race for the first time on his home racetrack, while Tiago Monteiro was able to chase the Chevrolet works cars for the whole race, finishing third and giving Honda their first podium result on their only third appearance in the World Championship. 
Key momentsStart – Muller takes the lead entering in the Mandarin bend, from Huff and MenuLap 1 – Bennani, Michelisz and D’Aste make contact at the Lisboa bend and block the fieldLap 1 – the marshals unravel the skein of cars, only Bennani and Oriola cannot rejoinLap 2 – Monteiro overtakes Tarquini for fourthLap 2 – the leading group – Muller, Huff, Menu, Monteiro, Tarquini and O’Young – have a huge margin ahead of the rest of the field led by CoronelLap 3 – Michelisz and D’Aste pit, their cars extensively damaged after the first lap pile upLap 4 – Huff outbrakes Muller at the Lisboa bend and takes the leadLap 4 – Huff hits the barrier at the Pajol bend, slows down and pits for repairsLap 5 – Muller leads from Menu and MonteiroLap 8 – Menu punts Muller, who skids sideways but manages to stay in the lead
Withdrawals