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Huff clinches Cruze's first victory

Rob Huff converted yeseterday's maiden pole position for the Chevrolet Cruze into the car's first victory in the opening World Touring Car race at Marrakech this afternoon

The Briton made a solid job of the rolling start and was able to hold the flock of factory SEAT Leons at bay into the first corner. Huff was able to control the race thereafter, just over a second clear of runner-up Gabriele Tarquini throughout.

Tarquini pulled clear of his SEAT team-mate in second as Yvan Muller struggled to match the pace of the pair ahead. Muller fell a couple of seconds back and eventually surrendered the final podium place to Jordi Gene.

Tiago Monteiro completed the train of four SEATs in fifth place, with only Rickard Rydell absent. The Swede made a great start from his lowly 12th on the grid but his race lasted only until the second corner where he hit the back of Jorg Muller's BMW and spun. Muller himself had just hit the back of Alain Menu's Chevrolet as the field packed into the tight corner.

Menu continued to finish seventh, just behind team-mate Nicola Larini, and Muller followed him home in eighth. Local driver Mehdi Bennani had a great run to ninth place in his privately-entered SEAT Leon, while Andy Priaulx completed the top 10.

The only other incident of the race was when Tom Coronel got his SUNRED SEAT sideways and clouted the barrier with two laps to go after taking too much kerb in the chicane on the back straight.

Jorg Muller and Menu will share the front row for this afternoon's reverse grid race, ahead of Larini and Monteiro.

Pos Driver                    Car                    Time
 1. Rob Huff                  Chevrolet        24m04.240s
 2. Gabriele Tarquini         SEAT                 +1.729
 3. Jordi Gene                SEAT                 +5.583
 4. Yvan Muller               SEAT                 +7.044
 5. Tiago Monteiro            SEAT                 +7.410
 6. Nicola Larini             Chevrolet            +8.577
 7. Alain Menu                Chevrolet            +9.043
 8. Jorg Muller               BMW                  +9.839
 9. Mehdi Bennani             SEAT                +10.398
10. Andy Priaulx              BMW                 +11.011
11. Franz Engstler            BMW                 +12.857
12. Augusto Farfus            BMW                 +17.033
13. Felix Porteiro            BMW                 +27.755
14. Sergio Hernandez          BMW                 +28.287
15. Marin Colak               SEAT                +31.487
16. Stefano D'Aste            BMW                 +34.793
17. Kirill Ladygin            Lada                +34.929
18. Vito Postiglione          BMW                 +42.413
19. George Tanev              BMW                 +43.944
20. Jaap van Lagen            Lada                +55.021
21. Tom Coronel               SEAT              +1m01.896

Retirements

    Viktor Shapovalov         Lada                11 laps
    Kristian Poulsen          BMW                  4 laps
    Alex Zanardi              BMW                  3 laps
    Rickard Rydell            SEAT                 0 laps


Fastest lap, Huff 1m50.833s

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