Tarquini recovered to finish in fourth, while Mulller's fifth place capped off a hugely successful weekend for SEAT, the Spanish manufacturer now having jumped back ahead of
BMW in the manufacturers' standings to establish an eleven point lead.
The Munich marque had to be content with a best of sixth place courtesy of Dirk Muller, but any hopes of Marcel Costa opening his scoring account was spoiled when he spun out of seventh place
As a result seventh place went to Gianni Morbidelli, the Italian driver taking his first points in the championship and bringing some happiness to an Alfa Romeo team that had just seenChevrolet vault past them in the manufacturers' standings.
Andy Priaulx meanwhile managed to recover to eighth place to take a single point but his meagre two points from the weekend has now dropped him to fourth in the championship, with Yvan Muller's establishing a comfortable seven point lead over Thompson, while Tarquini makes it three SEAT driver in the top three in the standings.
Menu meanwhile has now vaulted up to equal sixth, proving that Chevrolet now finally has the car to challenge the might of SEAT and Alfa Romeo.
In the Independent trophy, Ryan Sharp secured his first class win in the JAS Honda Accord. The Scot had run as high as 11th place overall but despite slipping back to 13th at the chequered flag, he remained a comfortable victor over Tom Coronel, although the Dutchman nonetheless leaves
Brands Hatch as the new series leader.
