With several cars abreast across the line finish line, Tarquini suddenly jinked to the left, slamming into the side of Rydell before switching back across into the pit wall and into a dramatic retirement in what looked like a possible legacy of the contact he had received just a few seconds earlier.
The impact meant Rydell came out from the exchange badly, breaking his right front suspension and being forced to cruise into retirement with only four laps of the race remaining.
With Muller and the remaining three SEATs, including a rather battered and bruised Coronel, being delayed, Menu, now in eighth place after Huisman finally made a move stick for seventh, had managed to scamper into the distance with not enough laps for the reassembled chasing pack to catch him, guaranteeing himself pole position in the process.
Up at the front though, Menu's team-mate Larini was not suffering from the same drop off in pace, the Italian driver looking racy as he finally found a way past countryman Tavano for third place and sprinting off to try and find a way past Rangoni two seconds up the road.
However, he was too late to do anything about Farfus who delivered Alfa Romeo their fourth win of the year, a result that again re-ignites his previously flagging title hopes after the top five in the championship standings failed to score, the leading three in particular licking their wounds after their crashes.
Rangoni held on for second, just seven tenths off Farfus, the Italian doing an impressive job on a circuit that has traditionally not favoured rear-wheel drive cars in the past, while Larini confirmed Chevrolet's upturn in pace by taking his second consecutive podium finish.
Tavano was a competitive fourth, ahead of Terting, the sole point scoring SEAT in a race that promised much but delivered precious little. He had managed to find a way past Jorg Muller in a quiet sixth, while Huisman and Menu clung on to the final points in seventh and eighth.
