Yvan Muller won the second World Touring Car Championship race at Brno with a fantastic performance to move from eighth on the grid to take the lead on the fifth lap.
Tom Coronel prevented another Chevrolet podium lockout by holding onto second place under intense pressure from Alain Menu and Rob Huff.
Coronel took the lead at the start of the race with a good getaway from the second row to pass polesitter Michel Nykjaer on the run down to Turn 1. Front row starter Franz Engstler got a very poor start and slipped to the back of the pack before retiring.
The Chevrolets began the race down in sixth, eighth and ninth places courtesy of the reversed qualifying system, but all three started making up places early on. Menu and Muller took third and fourth places respectively from Gabriele Tarquini on the opening lap, with Muller then taking third from his teammate later in the lap. Huff got past the Italian a couple of laps later as Muller tried to take second from Nykjaer.
Muller and Menu took second and third from Nykjaer on lap four, with Huff taking fourth place from the Dane on the following lap. Muller meanwhile took the lead from Coronel.
It was then Menu’s turn to try and get past Coronel, but the Dutchman put in a superb defensive performance to hold onto second ahead of the two Chevrolet drivers.
Nykjaer held onto fifth place ahead of SUNRED teammate Tarquini. Javier Villa finished in seventh, ahead of Kristian Poulsen, Robert Dahlgren and Mehdi Bennani.
Huff continues to lead the championship standings by 25 points over Muller, with Menu now a further 28 points adrift. The next round of the championship takes place on the streets of Porto on 3rd July.
Race results after 10 laps:
1. Yvan Muller (Chevrolet) 22:08.247
2. Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) +4.183
3. Alain Menu (Chevrolet) +4.415
4. Rob Huff (Chevrolet) +5.033
5. Michel Nykjaer (SUNRED) +8.450
6. Gabriele Tarquini (SUNRED) +9.118
7. Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) +9.381
8. Kristian Poulsen (Engstler BMW) +11.383
9. Robert Dahlgren (Polestar Volvo) +11.627
10. Mehdi Bennani (Proteam BMW) +11.988
