PRIAULX AND BMW WIN TITLES AGAIN

BMW have double reason to celebrate as they also took the Manufacturers" Championship for the third year.

Yvan Muller and Augusto Farfus did not took the start because their cars were not repairable after the problems (fuel pump failure for Muller and a collision with Tarquini for Farfus) they had in the first race.

Off the line James Thompson got a fantastic start to jump from fourth to second. He continued his rapid speed and overtook Nicola Larini for second at the Lisboa corner.

As the pack took the same corner Gabriele Tarquini, Rob Huff and Alessandro Zanardi were casualties. Zanardi and Huff did not rejoin while Tarquini finished 14th.

Over the next couple of laps Thompson was closely chasing Priaulx and Larini was also keeping tabs on the pair. Lap four saw Priaulx edge away while Larini and Thompson were nose to tail. On lap seven Larini made a stunning move at the exit of the Mandarin corner to demote Thompson to third.

In the final laps Larini closed the gap on Priaulx, but not enough to try an overtaking manoeuvre, while Thompson had to fight hard to defend his third position – that also meant third place in the championship – from the assaults of Tiago Monteiro.

The battle for the points in the final laps saw Jörg Müller and Jordi Gené dropping down and handing the 5th place to Tom Coronel who finished ahead of Rickard Rydell, Félix Porteiro, Colin Turkington and Fredrik Ekblom who scored the last point as Turkington was not eligible to do so.

The independent race was won by Luca Rangoni after a tough battle with Stefano D'Aste and Carl Rosenblad. His victory was not enough however as D'Aste emerged as the Independents' Trophy winner by two points.