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Farfus takes BMW's first win of '08

Schnitzer Motorsport's Augusto Farfus claimed his and BMW's first World Touring Car Championship victory of the season with a dominant performance on the streets of Pau

Starting from pole position after pipping SEAT's Yvan Muller in the dying moments of Saturday's qualifying session, Farfus held off the Frenchman's turbo diesel Leon at the start.

Despite the race being red-flagged on the first lap, after Alex Zanardi caused a track blockage by tagging Chevrolet's Alain Menu into a spin, Farfus didn't have to face a full restart as the race resumed under the safety car, based on positions at the first sector of the red-flagged lap.

When the race got underway again, Farfus qucikly established a cushion over Muller to win by more than 17 seconds in what was a processional race.

"I pushed hard in the first third of the race to build a gap," said Farfus, who was carrying just 3kg of ballast. "I think Yvan was saving the tyres because they didn't know what their tyre wear was like but we knew from last year."

Muller was followed by SEAT stablemate Jordi Gene, with Chevrolet's Rob Huff continuing his strong run of form by taking fourth from the heavily-ballasted Gabriele Tarquini on the last lap..

Rickard Rydell claimed sixth place in the fourth SEAT turbodiesel, one place ahead of Chevy's Nicola Larini.

Three-time champion Andy Priaulx will start this afternoon's second race from pole position after claiming the final point for eighth, one place ahead of the second Schnitzer car of Jorg Muller.

A surprise victory in the Independents' Trophy went to WTCC debutant Laurent Cazenave. The Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si driver, a Pau resident, took the lead at the first start and held off Proteam Motorsport duo Sergio Hernandez and Stefano d'Aste throughout the race.

Pos Driver                Car                Time
 1. Augusto Farfus        BMW           52:20.842
 2. Yvan Muller           SEAT            +17.851
 3. Jordi Gene            SEAT            +18.111
 4. Robert Huff           Chevrolet       +19.139
 5. Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT            +20.608
 6. Rickard Rydell        SEAT            +21.265
 7. Nicola Larini         Chevrolet       +22.110
 8. Andy Priaulx          BMW             +22.478
 9. Jorg Muller           BMW             +23.126
10. Alain Menu            Chevrolet       +23.543
11. James Thompson        Honda           +24.144
12. Alex Zanardi          BMW             +25.012
13. Tiago Monteiro        SEAT            +25.417
14. Tom Coronel           SEAT            +26.573
15. Felix Porteiro        BMW             +36.631
16. Laurent Cazenave      BMW             +37.412
17. Sergio Hernandez      BMW             +37.783
18. Stefano d'Aste        BMW             +38.254
19. Franz Engstler        BMW             +38.834
20. Andrey Romanov        BMW           +1:03.206
21. Jaap van Lagen        Lada          +1:03.847


Retirements:

    Driver                Car                Laps
    Ibrahim Okyay         BMW             13 laps
    Oscar Nogues          SEAT             0 laps
    Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT             0 laps


Fastest lap, Farfus 1:22.682 on lap 6

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