Two More Wins For The Cruzes In Hungary! Articles - Auto News

Menu wins Race 1, Muller and Huff make it 1-2 in Race 2

BUDAPEST, 5th June 2011 – The RML Chevrolet Cruzes brought home two more wins, as they dominated both races in Budapest, where the WTCC raced for the first time in front of an impressive and enthusiastic crowd. Alain Menu took a flag to flag win in Race 1, while Yvan Muller and Rob Huff scored a 1-2 in the second race. With these results, both Chevrolet and Rob Huff stay firmly in command of the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ overall standings.

In Race 1, starting from the pole, Alain Menu produced a flawless drive to take a flag to flag win, while Huff and Muller finished 4th and 5th, respectively. Race 2 was much more chaotic, because of a torrential downpour the Race Director red flagged the race for half an hour. At the re-start, Yvan Muller took the lead of the race to record his first win of the season while Rob Huff drove to a sensational second place, ending the weekend in the best way possible after only qualifying in 12th . Unfortunately Alain Menu recorded a DNF due to a collision with Tom Coronel on lap 4 after looking good for another good haul of points.

Chevrolet collected two more victories in Budapest and improved the team's tally to an impressive seven wins out of the eight races held so far. The first visit paid by WTCC to the Hungaroring turned into a hugely popular event, as a crowd of enthusiastic fans flocked to the track, cheering for home boy Norbert Michelisz, showing green, red and white boards to form a giant national flag on the grandstands, and roaring during the two exciting races provided by WTCC drivers.

Official figures were of 75,000 over the weekend, 60,000 of them on Sunday. Not even the rain spoiled the party, as the Hungarian fans stoically remained sitting and waiting for the second race to resume after the break for a torrential shower.
Alain Menu and Yvan Muller shared victories - the first of the season for the 2010 champion - but Rob Huff was probably the happiest of the Chevrolet men, as he collected two valuable results (fourth and second) that salvaged his leadership put in danger by a disappointing qualifying.

The races in Budapest gave other drivers the opportunity to shine. Gabriele Tarquini finished third in Race 2, but would have deserved more as he lost a podium in Race 1 after a contact with Villa and was leading the second race when the rain intensified and forced the red flag out.

Norbert Michelisz ended as runner up in the first race, but spoiled his chances to do even better in the second one, trying an impossible manoeuvre at the start.
Javier Villa claimed his first WTCC podium and proved once again he is one of the championship's best prospects for the future.

Robert Dahlgren was probably the day's most disappointed man. For the whole weekend his Volvo C30 had proved to be competitive on this track. Dahlgren had high expectations for the races, but he crashed at the beginning of the first one and then received a penalty in the second for hitting Oriola. This wasted a great opportunity for the Swedish team of achieving their best result ever in WTCC.

The championship will resume at Brno, Czech Republic, on June 19th for rounds 9 and 10.