Priaulx falls behind rival

Monday 20th September 2010, 2:30PM BST.

ANDY PRIAULX produced two solid drives in Valencia yesterday but found himself losing vital ground on his championship rivals Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini.

The Guernseyman finished fifth in race one from ninth on the grid and took fourth in the second.

On most days that would not have been a bad return but the bad news for him was that Muller and Tarquini both scored big to the extent that Priaulx leaves Spain now 25 points adrift of the defending champion in the drivers’ standings and has Tarquini just four adrift of him with just four more races remaining, two in Japan at the end of October and two in Macau at the end of November.

That qualifying proved so tough came as no surprise to Priaulx on a track unsuited to the BMW Team RBM.