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Remembering when… WTCC champion López ruled the Ring

José María López ruled the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife by winning both encounters that made up FIA WTCC Race of Germany on 28 May 2016.

The Citroën driver charged through from ninth on the grid to claim the Opening Race laurels before converting his DHL pole position into victory number five of the year by winning the Main Race.

Tiago Monteiro had been leading the Opening Race in his Honda only for a spectacular crash to put him out nearing the end of the final lap. Yvan Muller was also eliminated in the incident, although both drivers were given the all-clear following medical checks.

Tom Chilton was a double winner in the WTCC Trophy and second and third overall in the two action-packed races. The Sébastien Loeb Racing privateer also landed the TAG Heuer Best Lap Trophy - and a TAG Heuer watch - for his 8m47.586s charge around the 25.378-kilometre track.

Norbert Michelisz was twice in the top three for Honda, while the works Polestar and LADA squads also scored.

Following his third WTCC win at the track, López said: "Of course if there is a place where you want to win both races, you want to win everywhere but here it's really special. I was very cautious with the celebrations. I like to think you can be a good winner and a good loser and today the first race I take the profit of an accident otherwise it was going to be very difficult. But it's also important to be there and the team and everybody showed a fantastic advantage. At first I couldn't take advantage of the slipstream because Yvan was taking the slipstream of Tiago so even if I was quicker my chances were disappearing because it was very difficult. I'm really happy to have the first win and it's an extremely important boost for the championship for me."

Zdroj: fiawtcc.com