Jose Maria Lopez survived an attack from Gabriele Tarquini at the start of the first World Touring Car Championship race in Moscow to notch up his fourth win of the campaign and extend his points lead.
Out of the two front row starters, Tarquini got the better jump off the line but, on the inside for turn one, found himself having to concede the place after a nudge from behind put him into Lopez’s car and forced the Argentinian wide.
From there, Lopez was able to retain the lead and claimed victory by three seconds.
Sebastien Loeb demoted the second factory Honda of Tiago Monteiro to move up into third at the start and spent the rest of the race on the tail of Tarquini.
Monteiro ran wide at the final corner on lap four and fell from fourth to seventh, promoting Tom Chilton into fourth in his Chevrolet ahead of Yvan Muller. Muller was able to find a way past his former team-mate into turn one on the last lap to claim the position for himself.
Ma Qing Hua finished close behind in sixth on his debut in a fourth Citroen, ahead of Monteiro. Tom Coronel pulled an overtake on Norbert Michelisz at the final corner to take eighth, while Rob Huff made the top ten on Lada’s home track.
Hugo Valente was taken out by Campos team-mate Dusan Borkovic at the final corner. The Frenchman is due to start race two from pole if his car can be repaired in the available time.
