WTCC

Muller Holds Off Huff’s Late Charge To Win Wet First Race

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Yvan Muller claimed his third straight win in the World Touring Car Championship after resisting a late charge from teammate Rob Huff in Race 1 at a wet Oschersleben in Germany.

Muller led away from pole position at the rolling start, which was twice waved by as cars didn't line up through their grid boxes. Meanwhile Huff, Tom Coronel and Gabriele Tarquini all moved ahead of front-row starter Robert Dahlgren on the run to Turn 1.

Huff remained close to Muller during the opening stages as the Chevrolet pair eased away from their rivals. However, the Brit ran wide on lap 4, rejoining just ahead of Tarquini. Huff closed down on Muller in the remaining laps, but couldn't find a way through on the last lap.

Tarquini came home in a quiet third to complete the podium, ahead of Dahlgren who recovered to fourth after dropping as low as eighth on the opening lap after contact with Alain Menu. The Swiss driver finished in fifth, ahead of Yokohama Trophy winner Stefano D'Aste. Michel Nykjaer dropped back to seventh after running as high as fourth early on.

His Sunred teammates Pepe Oriola and Aleksei Dudukalo were eighth and ninth, the latter surviving late contact with Franz Engstler that sent the German driver spinning. Coronel finished in tenth after slipping down the field throughout the race.

Race 1 results – 14 laps:

Pos Driver Team Car Time/Gap
1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25:54.624
2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 0.289
3 Gabriele Tarquini Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 13.810
4 Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo C30 Drive 14.665
5 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 18.578
6 Stefano D’Aste Wiechers BMW 320 TC 25.058
7 Michel Nykjaer Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 33.795
8 Pepe Oriola Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 34.362
9 Alexey Dudukalo Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 43.187
10 Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 320 TC 45.665
11 Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 320 TC 46.105
12 Javier Villa Garcia Proteam BMW 320 TC 46.328
13 Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW 320 TC 46.627
14 Darryl O’Young Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 46.919
15 Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 320 TC 47.560
16 Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 320 TC 55.237
17 Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:29.885
18 Ibrahim Okyay Borusan BMW 320si 1:52.554
19 Fabio Fabiani Proteam BMW 320si +1 lap
Ret Tiago Monteiro Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 7 laps
Ret Fredy Barth Sunred Sunred SR Leon 1.6T 5 laps
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Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
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