Motorsport: Muller victorious again at Mondello

Yvan Muller’s relentless title charge continued with a comprehensive victory in the www.theaa.com British Touring Car Championship’s first ever race outside the United Kingdom, at Mondello Park, today.

Vauxhall Motorsport’s pole-position Frenchman led from the green light to the chequered flag, while team-mate Jason Plato’s bid to overtake his partner were wrecked by a puncture with just three of the 15 2.176-mile International Circuit laps left.

As Muller claimed his fifth win of the season in round nine, sending his championship lead above Plato soaring to 23 points, another flat tyre - suffered by Vauxhall Egg Sport racer Phil Bennett - left fellow Egg driver James Thompson 9.378secs adrift of Muller in second and Steve Soper in third for Peugeot’s first podium finish of the year.

Muller said: ‘‘I could manage to keep a gap between him (Plato) and me, except I was losing time when I overtook Production cars. If you clip the kerbs, you go a bit faster but you have the risk of a puncture.’’

Championship organisers British Motorsport Promoters imposed 90kg weight ballasts on Muller, Plato and Thompson and 63kg on Bennett to increase competition at the County Kildare circuit, 25 miles from Dublin.

The closest Plato came to getting past Muller was within yards of the start, when the pair were side-by-side down the pit straight. However, Muller bravely defended his inside line into Hewlett Packard corner. Plato closed the gap to Muller by a tenth-of-a-second every lap, until he was just 0.678secs behind on lap eight.

Then, as the leaders passed back-marker Robert Collard, Plato lost half-a-second. Disaster struck when a suspension problem led to a front right puncture at the sharp turn three left-hander leaving him trundling around the track. His mechanics rushed into the pit lane in readiness for a tyre change, but Plato elected to stay out in his damaged car.

Bennett then clipped a kerb on a corner exit and also blew his front right tyre. He pitted as soon as he felt the wheel was too soft to continue, seconds ahead of Plato knocking the Vauxhall Motorsport man down to seventh.

Soper, who had slipped behind Kurt Luby, retook the place and team-mate Dan Eaves to climb into third.

He said: ‘‘We’re all very pleased. I still don’t think we have the speed of the Vauxhalls, but we added a little bit more consistency.’’

Mondello Positions:

www.theaa.com British Touring Car Championship Round 9, Mondello Park, Ireland.

Sprint race (15 laps): 1 Y Muller (Fra) Vauxhall Astra Coupe 28mins 33.193secs,

2 J Thompson (Gbr) Vauxhall Astra Coupe 9.378secs,

3 S Soper (Gbr) Peugeot 406 Coupe 15.557,

4 K Luby (Gbr) Lexus IS200 32.520,

5 D Eaves (Gbr) Peugeot 406 Coupe 39.383,

6 P Bennett (Gbr) Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1min 27.327secs,

7 J Plato (Gbr) Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1 lap