WTCC – RACE 1 – ANOTHER 1-2-3 FOR CHEVROLET

Yvan Muller claimed his fifth victory of the season leading home a Chevrolet 1-2-3 with Rob Huff and Alain Menu in second and third position respectively. Once again the Chevrolet drivers capitalized on their qualifying results and survived a series of incidents at the start that eliminated or delayed their most dangerous competitors: Gabriele Tarquini who retired, and Norbert Michelisz who was forced to recover.
Incited by the cheers of thousandths of fans, the Hungarian racer put in a great show and recovered up to the sixth position, just to lose it on the last lap to Tom Coronel who was also rushing from the back.
Mehdi Bennani achieved his best ever result in WTCC, by finishing fourth overall and also claimed his first victory of the season in the Yokohama Trophy from Pepe Oriola and Alex MacDowall. Tiago Monteiro delivered a
brilliant performance, driving his SUNRED León car to fifth, his best result so far this year.

Key moments
Start – Two different incidents occur at Turn 1. Tarquini tries to overtake Huff on the outside line, but they make contact and Tarquini retires. Menu and Bennani clash and collect Michelisz. O’Young, Engstler, D’Aste and Boardman are also involved and retire.
Lap 1 – Muller leads, from Huff and Menu
Lap 2 – Michelisz overtakes Wéber and Di Sabatino and climbs to ninth
Lap 3 – Michelisz overtakes MacDowall for eighth
Lap 4 – Michelisz and MacDowall overtake Nash and move up to seventh and eighth
Lap 6 – Menu tries to overtake Huff, in vain
Lap 6 – Coronel overtakes Wéber and Nash and climbs to ninth
Lap 9 – Coronel overtakes MacDowall for eighth
Lap 11 – Michelisz and Coronel overtake Oriola and move up to sixth and seventh
Lap 12 – Coronel overtakes Michelisz for sixth

Withdrawals
D. O’Young: race incident; G. Tarquini: race incident; F. Engstler: race incident; T. Boardman: race incident; S. D’Aste: race incident; Thompson: overheating