Huff cruises to Macau victory
Rob Huff moved a step closer to finishing runner-up in the World Touring Car Championship with a dominant victory in the first race at Macau on Sunday
The Chevrolet driver made a good getaway from pole position at the rolling start to keep the lead as the safety car was called out almost immediately following a multi-car collision involving Andy Priaulx, Andre Couto and Michel Nykjaer at the first corner.
It took track officials four laps to clear the wreckage and at the restart on lap five Huff maintained his advantage before steadily pulling clear of team-mate and champion Yvan Muller. The 1-2 also clinched the manufacturer's title for Chevrolet.
He was more than two seconds ahead before the safety car was called out on the penultimate lap after Henry Ho crashed in the mountain section and his car was left in a dangerous place on the track.
SEAT's Tiago Monteiro shadowed Muller all through the race but could do nothing to overhaul the Chevrolet driver, while behind there was a big battle for fourth place.
It was Gabriele Tarquini who came out on top of that battle, after overtaking the struggling Augusto Farfus on the run down to Mandarin on lap eight. Farfus then lost another place to Norbert Michelisz the following lap to eventually finish sixth.
Alain Menu recovered from an opening lap error at Lisboa, where he nudged the barrier, to finish seventh.
Tom Coronel lost his chance of a top 10 finish when he was handed a drive-through penalty for tapping the back of Darryl O'Young under braking for Lisboa at the first restart - pushing the independent title challenger into a spin before he ran, out of control, into Fredy Barth.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 11 laps/35m34.840s
2. Yvan Muller Chevrolet +0.366
3. Tiago Monteiro SEAT +0.631
4. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT +0.909
5. Norbert Michelisz SEAT +1.306
6. Augusto Farfus BMW +1.967
7. Alain Menu Chevrolet +2.564
8. Kristian Poulsen BMW +2.823
9. Franz Engstler BMW +3.503
10. Mehdi Bennani BMW +3.998
11. Sergio Hernandez BMW +4.614
12. Tom Coronel SEAT +4.770
13. Yukinori Taniguchi Chevrolet +8.465
14. Cesar Campanico BMW +8.961
15. Andrei Romanov BMW +9.439
16. NobuteruTaniguchi BMW +13.059
17. Kevin Chen BMW +24.421
18. Philip Ma Honda +26.043
19. Jo Merszei BMW +27.592
20. Masaki Kano BMW +1 lap
21. Andy Priaulx BMW +4 laps
Retirements:
Henry Ho BMW 8 laps
Darryl O'Young Chevrolet 4 laps
Fredy Barth SEAT 4 laps
Colin Turkington BMW 4 laps
Andre Couto SEAT 0 laps
Michel Nykjaer SEAT 0 laps
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