WTCC: Alain Menu wins as Michel Vaillant in Portugal Race 2 (+photos, results)

Supporting a Michel Vaillant special livery, Alain Menu (Chevrolet) took away the win in the weekend's second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in Portugal. Yvan Muller (Chevrolet) had his moment earlier in the day, winning race 1.

Alain Menu as Michel Vaillant (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)

Gabriele Tarquini (Seat) was on pole for the start of race one, but was eating Muller's dust before the first corner. Tarquini still managed to finish second, ahead of Muller's teammate, Rob Huff.

Muller leading Tarquini and Huff (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)

Norbert Michelisz (BMW) managed to hold on to fourth; Menu could do no better than fifth place.

Michel Vaillant, the comic book hero (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)

But the Swiss had his revenge in the weekend's second race. He ran away with the lead early on and left his fellow competitors duke it out. 17-year-old Pepe Oriola (Seat) came out on top of a two-way fight with Tom Coronel (BMW) for second.

17-year-old Pepe Oriola (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)

The fourth place fight between Huff, Muller and Tarquini saw Muller finish ahead of Huff, and Tarquini retire after a crash.

Yvan Muller (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)

Race 1 results – WTCC (Algarve, Portugal)
From ItaliaRacing.net

1 – Yvan Muller – Chevrolet Cruze – RML - 11 laps in 21min20.620s
2 – Gabriele Tarquini – Seat Leon WTCC – Sunred - 0.336s
3 – Robert Huff – Chevrolet Cruze – RML – 0.951s
4 – Norbert Michelisz – BMW 320 TC – Zengo – 6.699s
5 – Alain Menu – Chevrolet Cruze – RML – 13.669s

6 – Tom Coronel – BMW 320 TC – Roal – 17.053s
7 – Tiago Monteiro – Seat Leon 1.6 T – Tuenti – 20.172s

8 – Alberto Cerqui – BMW 320 TC – Roal – 20.422s

9 – Pepe Oriola – Seat Leon WTCC – Tuenti – 21.134s

10 – Alez MacDowall – Chevrolet Cruze – Bamboo – 21.723s
11 – Stefano D'Aste – BMW 320 TC – Wiechers – 22.453s

12 – Franz Engstler – BMW 320 TC – Engstler – 26.142s
13 – Darryl O'Young – Seat Leon WTCC – STR – 29.066s
14 – Tom Boardman – Seat Leon WTCC – STR – 29.813s
15 – Pasquale Di Sabatino – Chevrolet Cruze – Bamboo – 34.752s
16 – Tom Chilton – Ford Focus S2000 – Arena - 42.163s

Fastest lap by Yvan Muller 1min54.451s



Retirements

Lap 2 – Aleksei Dudukalo

Lap 4 – Gabor Weber
Lap 7 – Mehdi Bennani
Lap 7 – James Nash
Lap 9 – Charles Ng
Lap 10 – James Thompson

Race 1 podium (Photo: FIA WTCC.com)