Muller extends championship lead in race one at Portimao

Yvan Muller took his sixth win of an increasingly dominant season in his Chevrolet Cruze thanks to a fast getaway from the outside of the front row of the grid in sunny conditions in Portugal. He now leads Rob Huff  (Chevrolet) by 20 points going into race two.

Gabriele Taquini followed Muller to the finish line in his Seat Leon but was unable to pass while defending from Muller’s team-mate Rob Huff in the sister Chevrolet. The former Formula One star was unable to mount a convincing passing attempt, eventually crossing the line 0.336s behind Muller. Huff was a further 0.615s back.

Norbert Michelisz (BMW 320 TC) took fourth after dropping behind Huff in the first corner melee. He hung on to Huff early on but then dropped back, eventually crossing the line 6.699s behind Muller.

Michelisz had a lonely race as he dropped Alain Menu (Chevrolet) who stormed to fifth position after a disappointing qualifying session that saw him start on the fifth row of the grid.

Tom Coronel rounded off the top six in his BMW finishing 3.119s ahead of Tiago Monteiro (Seat)who led the quartet of Alberto Cerqui (BMW), Pepe Oriola (Seat), Alex MacDowall (Chevrolet) and Stefano D’Aste (BMW) over the line.

Retirements included James Thompson’s Lada which suffered from a driveshaft failure; while racing incidents accounted for Aleksei Dudakalo (Seat), Gabor Weber (BMW), Mehdi Bennani (BMW), James Nash (Ford) and Charles Ng (BMW).

WTCC Portimao Race One Results