Monza WTCC: Yvan Muller charges to second Monza win in rain
Yvan Muller completed his perfect start to the 2013 World Touring Car Championship by coming through from 10th to win the second race at Monza
The Frenchman made a rapid start and was fourth by the end of the first lap.
Moves on Michel Nykjaer at Lesmo 2 and then on Marc Basseng around the outside of Curva Grande elevated him to second by the fourth lap, while a mistake by Gabriele Tarquini at Ascari earned him the lead heading into Parabolica one lap later.
Muller rapidly extended that to a comfortable two-second margin, allowing him to manage the gap for the rest of the race.
Nykjaer, Tarquini and Basseng remained locked in a race-long battle for the final two podium spots.
Nykjaer eventually managed to edge clear and claim second in the first event of his NIKA team's new programme.
Behind him a furious scrap between Tarquini and Basseng was finally settled in the Honda man's favour, the pair crossing the line separated by just 0.087 seconds.
As they quarelled Tom Chilton, who had fought his way up from ninth on the grid, closed in. The Briton, runner-up in race one, ran out of time and finished half a second down the road in fifth.
Pepe Oriola, who like Chilton had spent much of the race trying to find a way past James Nash, grabbed sixth.
Nash was seventh, but is under investigation from the stewards following his dogged defence.
Tiago Monteiro picked up his second top-10 finish in eighth, just ahead of Stefano D'Aste - who had crashed heavily in the opener - and Rob Huff.
The defending champion had elected to start from the pitlane in order to fix a braking issue on his Munnich SEAT, but still managed to pick his way through the field and round out the top 10.
Muller now leads the championship on 55 points, ahead of RML Chevrolet team-mate Chilton on 32.
Results - 10 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet 23m27.254s 2. Michel Nykjaer NIKA Chevrolet + 2.482s 3. Gabriele Tarquini Honda + 4.994s 4. Marc Basseng Munnich SEAT + 5.081s 5. Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet + 5.612s 6. Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT + 6.755s 7. James Nash Bamboo Chevrolet + 14.445s 8. Tiago Monteiro Honda + 20.573s 9. Stefano d'Aste PB BMW + 23.722s 10. Rob Huff Munnich SEAT + 25.442s 11. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 37.126s 12. Darryl O'Young ROAL BMW + 41.394s 13. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 43.904s 14. Fredy Barth Wiechers BMW + 45.921s 15. Fernando Monje Campos SEAT + 50.678s 16. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT + 53.591s 17. Charles Ng Engstler BMW + 59.157s 18. Jean-Philippe Dayraut Anome BMW + 1m06.537s 19. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 1m26.721s 20. Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet + 1 lap 21. Rene Munnich Munnich SEAT + 1 lap 22. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda + 1 lap
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