Yvan Muller beats Rob Huff in first World Touring Car race at Donington Park
Yvan Muller survived some late pressure to deny Rob Huff a home win in the first of today's World Touring Car Championship races at Donington Park
Muller started from pole and had enjoyed a relatively untroubled run for most of the race, but Huff was able to capitalise on some late traffic to close within range with a lap remaining.
What had been a one-second gap briefly shrunk to almost nothing, but Muller was able to pull away again as the pair drove around the circuit for the final time. An error by Huff at the Esses put the result beyond doubt, and Muller went on to beat the Briton by 1.136s. Alain Menu was 2.7s further behind Huff in third to complete another Chevrolet 1-2-3.
While the race was relatively uneventful up at the front, there was plenty going on in the midfield. Robert Dahlgren drove from the back of the field to eighth in his Volvo, despite almost behind launched off the rear of Kristian Poulsen's BMW along the way.
It was also a busy race for Colin Turkington, who recovered from an early trip along the grass to become immersed in a multi-car battle for the minor points places. Another trip across the gravel while scrapping with Michel Nykjaer for seventh cost the Briton some more time, but he still managed to finish 10th for Wiechers BMW.
Results - 13 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 21m21.521s
2. Rob Huff Chevrolet + 1.136s
3. Alain Menu Chevrolet + 3.903s
4. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 8.708s
5. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT + 9.299s
6. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 14.186s
7. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT + 18.974s
8. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo + 19.191s
9. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW + 20.536s
10. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW + 28.804s
11. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet + 29.831s
12. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT + 29.966s
13. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT + 34.093s
14. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 34.526s
15. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT + 39.419s
16. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet + 1m07.938s
17. Fabio Fabiani Proteam BMW + 1 lap
18. Javier Villa Proteam BMW + 1 lap
Retirements:
Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 7 laps
Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 4 laps
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