Race 1 winner Jose Mario Lopez (centre), with Mehdi Bennani (third from left), who finished second, and Hugo Valente (third from right), who took third place, celebrate on the podium with QMMF president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah (second from left)at Losail International Circuit yesterday.
By Joe Koraith/Losail
The season finale of the WTCC, held for the first time under lights at the Losail International Circuit, was an exciting affair giving the large number of people gathered in the grandstand lots to cheer about.
The already-crowned 2015 World Champion Jose Mario Lopez won the first race to equal his record of 10 wins in a season. There was a keen battle for second in the championship between Citroen teammates Sebastien Loeb and Yvan Muller, and it was the latter who won it by a solitary point. Muller won the second race, which started with a reverse grid and came sixth in the first to edge ahead of Loeb. As for Loeb, who bids adieu to WTCC after this season, he will have to content with a third place finish in the championship after he managed to finish fourth in both the races.
Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah had a good outing considering it was his first time in WTCC, and his first time in international circuit racing since 2010. The two-time Dakar winner finished 17th and 14th in Race 1 and 2 respectively.
The battle for the Yokohama Drivers Trophy was the more nail-biting one. It was eventually won by Honda’s Nobert Michelisz who had a seven-point lead going into the final two races. The Hungarian finished the first race in fifth and then claimed a trophy-winning third place on the podium in the second race. Citroen’s Mehdi Bennani who finished a commendable second in the first race could only manage fifth in the second race, which saw him fall short by two points. The Moroccan had the loudest support here but couldn’t do enough in the second race to get the Yokohama Trophy.
Earlier during qualifying Lopez had easily topped the time sheets in all three sessions. In second place was Bennani and Loeb took up third place on the grid. Qatar’s al-Attiyah qualified last among the 18 cars on the grid.
In the first race, Lopez led from start to finish to claim a commanding win. Such was the domination of the Argentinian that Bennani who finished second was 7.6 seconds behind. In third place was Hugo Valente. Loeb who started the race in third fell behind in the first corner after he tried to overtake Lopez but instead ended up dropping to fourth.
He was able to go past Valente in the second lap but then fell behind and spent the rest of the race trying to get past his compatriot but without any success.
Michelisz who was battling with Bennani for the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy came in seventh.
Qatar’s al-Attiyah had a bit of luck at the back of the grid. First Gabriele Tarquini spun out in the first lap, which enabled the Qatari to climb up once place in the grid. But the Italian took back the place pushing al-Attiyah back to last. Then towards the end of the race Gregoire Demoustier had an incident, which saw al-Attiyah finish 17th.
It was a blockbuster end to the season and the fans that had turned up in big numbers, thanks to QMMF’s efforts to arrange for free rides to the circuit, will have gone home happy with a loud buzz in their ears.
