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Sonoma WTCC: Yvan Muller boosts points lead with race one win

Yvan Muller stretched his World Touring Car Championship lead with a narrow victory in the series' maiden American race

The triple WTCC champion was chased home at Sonoma by title rival and RML Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff, who was just half a second adrift at the chequered flag.

Muller's eighth victory of the season was achieved after power-steering gremlins dropped the third factory Chevrolet of Alain Menu from contention.

Polesitter Menu survived a wheel-banging session with fast-starting front-row man Gabriele Tarquini at Turn 2 on the opening lap.

Lukoil SEAT racer Tarquini was squeezed off the road and dropped to fifth, while Menu held his ground to maintain the lead ahead of Muller, Huff and Yokohama Drivers' Trophy leader Norbert Michelisz.

Further back, Stefano D'Aste gave the occupiers of a marshal post a scare when he spun off on the inside at Turn 2. Darryl O'Young, Alberto Cerqui and Pepe Oriola were involved in a separate melee on the outside of the corner.

The three blue Cruzes ran in close formation until Menu slowed entering the Carousel on lap four, allowing both Muller and Huff to dive through.

Menu pitted at the conclusion of the lap, having survived a trip through the scrub lining the Sonoma circuit.

Promoted into third place, Michelisz was unable to threaten the lead pair. But the Hungarian appeared to exert little effort in extending a comfortable 3.4s margin over Tarquini at the finish.

Bamboo Engineering's Alex MacDowall recorded his highest finish of the season in fifth, ahead of Tiago Monteiro's Tuenti SEAT.

After a troubled qualifying session, Tom Coronel made startling progress from 21st on the grid to take eighth for ROAL Motorsport.

In an eventful race, Coronel inadvertently sent fellow BMW runner Mehdi Bennani into a spin at the Carousel on lap eight. The Moroccan recovered to finish 11th, behind Tom Boardman, up from 20th, and reversed-grid polesitter Stefano D'Aste.

Results - 13 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller        Chevrolet            23m34.369s
 2.  Rob Huff           Chevrolet              + 0.564s
 3.  Norbert Michelisz  Zengo BMW              + 5.444s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini  Lukoil SEAT            + 8.847s
 5.  Alex MacDowall     Bamboo Chevrolet      + 11.803s
 6.  Tiago Monteiro     Tuenti SEAT           + 12.422s
 7.  Franz Engstler     Engstler BMW          + 15.707s
 8.  Tom Coronel        ROAL BMW              + 16.341s
 9.  Stefano D'Aste     Wiechers BMW          + 17.304s
10.  Tom Boardman       Special Tuning SEAT   + 25.823s
11.  Mehdi Bennani      Proteam BMW           + 30.314s
12.  Tom Chilton        Arena Ford            + 34.388s
13.  Robb Holland       Bamboo Chevrolet      + 40.092s
14.  Darryl O'Young     Special Tuning SEAT   + 46.184s
15.  Charles Ng         Engstler BMW          + 47.864s

Retirements:

     Pepe Oriola        Tuenti SEAT             10 laps
     James Nash         Arena Ford               9 laps
     Alain Menu         Chevrolet                9 laps
     Fernando Monje     SUNRED SEAT              8 laps
     Alberto Cerqui     ROAL BMW                  1 lap
     Aleksei Dudukalo   Lukoil SEAT              0 laps

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