Rob Huff held on under intense pressure from Chevrolet teammate Yvan Muller to score his second victory of the World Touring Car Championship round at Monza in Italy.
The Briton began the race second on the grid thanks to the reverse qualifying system, and passed Tiago Monteiro's SUNRED SEAT on the run down to the first chicane off the standing start. Muller found his way into second past Monteiro at the parabolica, and began to attack Huff for the lead.
Their battle continued lap-after-lap and nearly ended in disaster when Muller went into the back of Huff's car under braking for the Parabolica on lap six. The Frenchman received a black and white flag for the misdemeanour. Huff held on to win, becoming the third man to win both races in a WTCC weekend, after Jorg Muller in France in 2005 and James Thompson in Spain in 2007.
The battle behind the Chevrolet pair was intense throughout the race, with Kristian Poulsen coming out on top to score his maiden overall podium in the WTCC in his Engstler BMW. Tom Coronel looked set to finish fourth until a puncture on the final lap. Monteiro finished fourth, with Alain Menu finishing fifth. The Swiss Chevrolet driver had moved through from the back of the grid after his car was taken out of parc ferme between the two races to fix the damage from his clash with Muller on the last lap of Race 1.
Darryl O'Young beat Norbert Michelisz to sixth, with Javier Villa and Franz Engstler finishing just behind. Gabriele Tarquini claimed the final world championship point in tenth at the end of a frustrating home race weekend for the Italian.
Huff's double race win moves him 36 points clear at the top of the drivers' standings. Muller's two runner-up spots elevate him from fourth to second, with Menu slipping to third, five points behind Muller. The fourth round of the championship takes place at the Hungaroring in three weeks time.
Final results after nine laps:
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 18:10.032 | |
2 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 0.242 | |
3 | Y | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 3.559 |
4 | Tiago Monteiro | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | 6.211 | |
5 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 8.896 | |
6 | Y | Darryl O'Young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 10.089 |
7 | Y | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 10.780 |
8 | Y | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 11.054 |
9 | Y | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 11.056 |
10 | Gabriele Tarquini | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | 12.800 | |
11 | Y | Yukinori Taniguchi | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 19.420 |
12 | Y | Pepe Oriola | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | 21.519 |
13 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 | 23.532 | |
14 | Y | Marchy Lee | KK | BMW 320 TC | 27.912 |
15 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 28.095 | |
16 | Y | Ibrahim Okyay | Borusan | BMW 320si | 48.069 |
17 | Y | Urs Sonderegger | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 52.972 |
18 | Y | Fabio Fabiani | Proteam | BMW 320si | 1:27.890 |
19 | Y | Fredy Barth | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | +2 laps |
20 | Y | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | +2 laps |
Ret | Y | Aleksei Dudukalo | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | 1 lap |
Ret | Y | Michel Nykjaer | SUNRED | SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI | 0 laps |