WTCC: Monteiro wins as darkness stops race

Honda driver Tiago Monteiro scored his third win of the World Touring Car Championship season in a second race at Buriram in Thailand stopped early when it got too dark.

The race was always supposed to be run in twilight, but a late start meant conditions were deemed too dark on lap 11 of the scheduled 14. The red flag brought a reprieve for Monteiro, who was coming under increased pressure from Sebastien Loeb in the closing stages.

Monteiro started second behind fellow Honda racer Norbert Michelisz on the reverse grid, and held position for a couple of laps before passing the Hungarian on the run to Turn 4. Michelisz was then handed a drive-through penalty for a parc ferme violation in the gap between the two races. That released Loeb, who brought the gap to Monteiro down underneath two seconds prior to the stoppage.

Tom Chilton held third in his Chevrolet until lap eight when he succumbed to two more Citroens, driven by Ma Qing Hua and Jose Maria Lopez.

Newly-crowned champion Lopez had been ahead of Loeb and Ma on the first lap when he ran wide and fell behind both. He still had a better start than Yvan Muller, who suffered race-ending first-lap contact as in race one.

Ma and Mehdi Bennani were also involved once again, this time at Turn 1. Chilton had been pushed further down the order prior to the red flag but was classified fifth ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, Rob Huff and Bennani. Stefano D'Aste was ninth and local driver Tin Sritrai took 10th again.

Nicky Catsburg, Nicolas Lapierre, Tom Coronel and Hugo Valente were all non-starters as a result of damage sustained in the first-lap skirmishes in race one.

Originally on Autosport.com