Yvan Muller

BTCC alumnus
Name = Yvan Muller


Caption = Yvan Muller in 2006, as a WTCC driver
Nationality = flagicon|FRA
Team = Audi, Vauxhall
Championships = 1
Wins = 36
Podiums = 79
Poles = 17
Fastest laps = 28
First year = 1998
First win = 1999
Best position = 1st (2003)
Last season = 2005
Last position = 2nd (273 points)

Yvan Muller (born August 16 1969, in Altkirch, Alsace) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in Touring Car and Ice racing.

Early career

After competing in the French Formula Renault and French Formula Three, he won the British Formula Two championship title in 1992 and competed in the FIA Formula 3000 Championship in 1993.

Touring cars

Muller won the French Touring Car Championship in 1995, and has also raced in the German and Italian championships, as well as doing a one-off in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC).

BTCC

For several years he primarily raced in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), initially for Audi before joining Vauxhall and taking his first win in 1999. He came sixth overall in 1999, and fourth in 2000.

When the regulations changed for 2001 Vauxhall had the best car, leading to five years of heavy success for Yvan. He won the 2003 title, and was runner-up in four other years - in 2001 (to team-mate Jason Plato), 2002 and 2004 (both to team-mate James Thompson, and 2005 (to Matt Neal in a Honda Integra).

V8 Supercar

Muller competed in the two Australian V8 Supercar endurance races each year for a number of years, taking victory at the 2005 Sandown 500 with local driver Craig Lowndes in their Betta Electrical Triple Eight BA Falcon. In the same year, he was also involved in one of the most memorable incidents at the Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 1000, where in the lead, Craig Lowndes clipped the wall at Reid Park, and after a watts link change, another incident saw a wheel part company from Paul Dumbrell's car and hit the windscreen of Lowndes. In 2006 and 2007, Muller has been unable to race in the two annual enduros due to a clash with WTCC.

WTCC

On November 12 2005 it was officially announced that he would be switching to the 2006 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), driving for SEAT Sport. A pair of 2nd places in the opening meeting in Monza showed that he was a likely frontrunner, his first win then coming in round 5 at Brands Hatch. He was classified 4th at the end of the season with 62pts.

He finished 2nd in the 2007 WTCC with 81pts, and he lost the title to Andy Priaulx (BMW 320si) of Guernsey during the last race in Macau where his SEAT León TDI suffered a fuel pump failure when he was leading the first race with one lap to go, which put him out of race 2 at Macau. [cite news | url =http://www.fiawtcc.com/fiawtcc/macau/2007/sport_sto1383705.shtml | title = PRIAULX AND BMW WIN TITLES AGAIN | publisher =fiawtcc.com | pages = | page = | date =2007-11-18 | accessdate =2007-11-19 | language =] [cite news | url =http://www.fiawtcc.com/fiawtcc/sport_sto1384149.shtml | title = THEY SAID, THEY SAID… | publisher =fiawtcc.com | pages = | page = | date =2007-11-18 | accessdate =2007-11-19 | language =]

He opened 2008 win a victory at Curitiba, Brazil [http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65429] . As of the Brands Hatch round he was battling for the championship, primarily with team-mate Gabriele Tarquini [http://www.oneighturbo.com/2008/07/27/wtcc-yvan-muller-clinches-new-podium-finish-for-seat/]

Other racing category

He primarily races in touring cars, but also participates in other category. Especially, he has won the Andros Trophy Ice Racing Championship 10 times, with 46 race victories.

In ealy career, he competed the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1993 and 1996, but did not finish. In 2007, he participated in the Dakar Rally. He represented France in the 2007 Race of Champions, alongside Sebastian Bourdais.

References

External links

* [http://www.yvan-muller.com Yvan Muller official website]

* [http://www.fiawtcc.com/fiawtcc/personnews_prs84715.shtml Profile] - from [http://www.fiawtcc.com/ WTCC official website]
* [http://www.btccinfo.co.uk/drivers/muller.html Profile] - from [http://www.btccinfo.co.uk/ btccinfo.co.uk]