Rob Huff has won the last race of the World Touring Car Championship season after a chaotic final two laps that saw the three drivers ahead of him crash out.
A remarkable race of attrition that saw just ten cars from the original starting grid of 26 reach the finish line, Huff only led for a handful of corners after James Thompson, Augusto Farfus and Gabriele Tarquini all retired within a lap of each other.
Up until that point, the leading runners had had little to concern themselves with as Thompson led away from pole position, ahead of the typically fast-starting Farfus and Tarquini. Nicola Larini had been third, but was quickly punished for a blatant jump-start that had lifted him from ninth to second by the first corner.
The top three quickly broke away, with Farfus harrying the back of Thompson's Honda through the twisty part of the circuit, but being unable to get close enough out of the final corners to get a run on him down to Lisboa. In fact, Tarquini came closer to relieving Farfus of his second place, but the Brazilian defended strongly against the SEAT, the two briefly making contact on lap five.
Their tussle had given Thompson sufficient breathing space to try and ease away to what would have been an important second win of a season at a time when N.Technology are thought to be persuading Honda to increase their WTCC involvement next year.
However, it all unravelled with just over a lap to go when Thompson exited the Solitude Esses with a heavily damaged Accord. Thompson later confirmed that he was tagged into the barriers by Farfus.
His retirement promoted Farfus up into the lead, but his good fortune would last for just one lap longer when he too lost control of the BMW and clouted the barriers after seemingly losing the left-front wheel of his car, possibly due to his contact with Thompson.
It was the errant wheel that would spell Tarquini's demise too when he had nowhere to go but over it, the subsequent impact having an immediate effect on the SEAT as it slowed to a crawl towards the hairpin.
As carnage reigned around them, it was Huff who found himself in the lead of the race as he entered the final few bends. The Brit had worked his way up to fourth place when he overtook a laboured Jordi Gene on lap four, but he hadn't been close enough to make an impression on the leaders.
