Salzburgring WTCC: Nash snatches first WTCC victory

Nash, starting on reverse-grid pole, had initially lost out to Norbert Michelisz's Zengo Honda on the run down to the first corner, but fought his way back immediately to regain the lead by the end of the first lap.

The duo held position until the penultimate lap, when Michelisz was demoted by a charging Muller, who had started from 10th.

Just one second separated Nash and Muller heading into the final lap, but rather than come under pressure he was able to extend that advantage slightly en route to his first win in the series.

Muller claimed the second step of the podium, having claimed the scalps of Rob Huff, Gabriele Tarquini, Michel Nykjaer, Pepe Oriola and finally Michelisz during the 12-lap contest.

Tiago Monteiro held on to claim fourth despite late pressure from race one winner Nykjaer, who was in turn having to fend off the advances of Nash's Bamboo team-mate Alex MacDowall in the closing stages.

Behind them Oriola finished as top SEAT in seventh, with defending champion Huff unable to find a way past the second works Honda of Tarquini.

Tom Coronel also attached himself to the battle for eighth, although he was likewise unable to make a move stick on Huff.

Tom Chilton meanwhile was a casualty of a clash as the field ran through the Turn 1 chicane for the first time.

MacDowall and Lada's James Thompson were also caught out, but were both able to continue, with Thompson coming home 12th, just behind Marc Basseng in the second Munnich-run SEAT.

Results - 12 laps:

Pos Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1. James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet    17m36.853s  
 2. Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet         + 1.438s
 3. Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda           + 1.818s
 4. Tiago Monteiro      Honda                 + 3.483s
 5. Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet        + 4.064s
 6. Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet      + 4.574s
 7. Pepe Oriola         Tuenti SEAT           + 7.898s
 8. Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                 + 9.025s
 9. Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT          + 9.483s
10. Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW              + 9.859s
11. Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT          + 13.627s
12. James Thompson      Lada                  + 14.145s
13. Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW          + 14.556s
14. Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW          + 14.857s
15. Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                  + 15.155s
16. Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW           + 16.223s
17. Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT           + 27.497s
18. Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT          + 41.749s
19. Charles Ng          Engstler BMW          + 46.282s

Retirements:

    Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet         6 laps