Yvan Muller claimed an uncontested victory in the World Touring Car Championship’s first race in Argentina.
Starting from pole, Muller quickly gapped the rest of the field. He left them to fight with each other as he claimed the win by nearly five seconds.
Norbert Michelisz was the closest man to Muller in the early laps in his Honda. After losing ground at the start, Muller’s RML team-mate Tom Chilton worked his way past Michelisz and back into second, with the similar Chevrolet of Pepe Oriola following him through.
Oriola then went on to pass Chilton for second place a few laps later.
An off early on sent Gabriele Tarquini down the order, but he took advantage of a coming together between Michelisz, Michel Nykjaer and James Nash ahead of him to steal fourth.
Local hero Jose Maria Lopez worked his way up the order in his BMW, taking fifth place away from Nykjaer on the penultimate lap. The former GP2 ace and US F1 driver is set to start race two from pole.
Michelisz survived the race to take seventh place, ahead of Rob Huff, Nash and Tiago Monteiro – Huff and Monteiro having come forward from the back of the grid after penalties for engine changes.
