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Huff wins race one at Pau

Rob Huff scored his second victory of the World Touring Car season at Pau this afternoon

The Briton capitalised on a mistake by pole-sitter Augusto Farfus on the second lap and took the lead in his Chevrolet Cruze.

He then spent the remaining 17 laps soaking up relentless pressure from a line of four BMWs, but defended faultlessly on the narrow French street circuit.

The win follows Huff's maiden success for the new Cruze car at Marrakech two weeks ago, and is the third straight victory for Chevrolet with Nicola Larini having taken his first WTCC in race two in Morocco.

"This one was a lot harder [than Marrakech]," said Huff. "It's been a bit of a messy weekend with what's been going on [after qualifying] but I'm very pleased to have come through it and taken the win.

"I feel sorry for Augusto because he hit some oil that didn't seem to be there the lap before. I just managed to get through on the inside while he was slipping around on the outside."

Farfus was made to pay for his early mistake and had to settle for second behind Huff. Despite spending the rest of the race just inches from the Chevrolet's rear bumper he was unable to create an opportunity to pass. A sniff up the inside into Turn 1 was as close as he got, but he wasn't far enough alongside and thought better of it as the two cars turned in.

Jorg Muller completed the podium, ahead of Andy Priaulx who darted by Alain Menu to take fourth place at Turn 1 mid-way through the race. Menu tried to come back at Priaulx on the run to Turn 2 and touched the BMW as he tried to squeeze it. But the loss of momentum only allowed Sergio Hernandez to demote him to sixth at the next corner.

Menu slowed on the last lap to drop from sixth to eighth and ensure that he will start this afternoon's second race from pole position. That allowed Felix Porteiro and Franz Engstler ahead into sixth and seventh.

Tom Coronel had led the independents class for much of the race, but he got a tap in the boot from Porteiro behind and ran wide exiting the hairpin. He was passed by both Porteiro and Engstler on the way out and ended up ninth.

Tom Boardman completed the top 10 in the second SUNRED, albeit a long way adrift of Coronel.

The factory SEATs continued their miserable weekend with Yvan Muller leading the yellow train home in 12th place, half a minute down the road from the leaders.

Pos Driver               Car                 Gap
 1. Rob Huff             Chevrolet    27m10.540s
 2. Augusto Farfus       BMW              +0.261
 3. Jorg Muller          BMW              +0.892
 4. Andy Priaulx         BMW              +1.105
 5. Sergio Hernandez     BMW              +1.943
 6. Felix Porteiro       BMW              +9.241
 7. Franz Engstler       BMW              +9.544
 8. Alain Menu           Chevrolet        +9.550
 9. Tom Coronel          SEAT            +11.050
10. Tom Boardman         SEAT            +23.983
11. Eric Cayrolle        SEAT            +31.504
12. Yvan Muller          SEAT            +32.037
13. Gabriele Tarquini    SEAT            +32.485
14. Rickard Rydell       SEAT            +33.322
15. Tiago Monteiro       SEAT            +34.067
16. Kristian Poulsen     BMW             +34.823
17. Jordi Gene           SEAT            +36.815
18. Viktor Shapovalov    Lada            +54.020
19. Mehdi Bennani        SEAT            +54.870
20. Marin Colak          SEAT             +1 lap

Retirements

    Jaap van Lagen       Lada            13 laps
    Stefano D'Aste       BMW             12 laps
    Alex Zanardi         BMW             12 laps
    Laurent Cazenave     BMW              4 laps
    Nicola Larini        Chevrolet        2 laps
    Kirill Ladygin       Lada             0 laps


Fastest lap, Hernandez 1:24.005

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