MONTEIRO CLAIMS 1st WIN
10 April 2008

SEAT cars filled the top-six position at the end of the second race in Puebla and this results, in addition to the 1-2 obtained for the Spanish Manufacturers in today’s first race, secured the total domination of the yellow León cars (never mind if they are turbo diesel or petrol-powered) in Puebla.

Four SEAT men – in the order Rydell, Tarquini, Muller and Gené – are on top of the Drivers’ Championship, while SEAT have already built a solid advantage in the Manufacturers’ Championship.

Even though it was Chevrolet’s Alain Menu who began from pole position for the second race, it was SEAT Sport annihilation. Tiago Monteiro (right) took the chequered flag with a spotless drive throughout the race after he took the lead into the first corner.

Rickard Rydell and Gabriele Tarquini battled for second position with the Swede coming out on top after Tarquini ran wide on lap 14. Rydell had another great start coming up from seventh to fourth on the first lap.

Tarquini (left) had jumped up to third at the start ahead of eventual fourth placed team mate Yvan Muller.

First race winner Jordi Gené, finished in fifth after the problems for Chevrolet’s Alain Menu and Nicola Larini, the latter failed to finish the race after a rear suspension collapsed following a collision with another car. Gené was battling with Muller for fifth position, but he came off worse and Muller proceeded to overtake Menu.

Menu ran wide and fell down to tenth position, allowing the SEAT’s to dominate. He battled back up to seventh, behind Tom Coronel who rounded off SEAT’s top six positions.

BMW UK’s Andy Priaulx finished in the top BMW car in eighth place as he fought with Menu and Huff for most of the race, as the BMWs struggled once again. Priaulx was the only German manufacturer’s driver to score during the weekend.

Robert Huff (right) had another eventful race: after a poor start he made his way back up to eighth, only for him to drop places down to tenth. For the rest of the race he battled with Priaulx and Menu and eventually finished just outside the points in ninth.

Pierre-Yves Corthals (below left) won the Independents’ class to add to his triumph in race one. He is now on joint points with Stefano D’Aste, who finished behind him in fourteenth, and Olivier Tielemans who had won both races in Brazil.

The start was clean but, once again, Jörg Müller and Alessandro Zanardi (above right) had clashes during the first lap, and Müller later left the track but rejoined to finish the race behind Zanardi in twelfth.

[View Results & Standings]

The championship will resume for rounds 5 and 6 in Valencia, Spain, on May 17th and 18th.