Yvan Muller wins first Valencia race

The reigning champion passed SEAT team-mate and polesitter Gabriele Tarquini half way around the first lap and went on to score a comfortable victory.

Tarquini had looked to get back at Muller straight away, but he fell back from the leader and then gave second place away when he ran ride twice in successive corners.

Tiago Monteiro took second from Tarquini but was powerless to run down Muller and head to follow his team-mate home, with Tarquini completing a podium of turbo diesel Leons in third.

Jorg Muller spent every lap of the race in fourth place after making a tremendous start from 11th on the grid, but he slowed over the line on the final lap and finished sixth behind fellow BMW drivers Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx. Farfus had to charge back through the top 10 after he lost time being squeezed onto the grass by Jordi Gene off the line.

Tom Coronel was the first of the independents home in seventh place, while Sergio Hernandez will start this afternoon's second race from the front aftering finishing eighth.

While three of the factory SEATs led the field, the other two had races to forget. Rickard Rydell tapped Alain Menu into Gene at the first corner of the race, with the resulting damage forcing Gene into retirement. Rydell dropped to the back of the field in the incident and could only recover as far as 13th by the end.

Menu's race was also ruined by the first corner contact and he finished 15th. His Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff damaged his car tangling with the independent SEAT of Mehdi Bennani and, after pitting for damage, he had to visit the pits again to serve a drive-through penalty. The third Chevrolet of Nicola Larini ran eighth early in the race, but slipped back to 11th by the end.

Pos Driver                Car                  Gap
 1. Yvan Muller           SEAT          23m13.675s
 2. Tiago Monteiro        SEAT              +1.884
 3. Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT              +4.157
 4. Augusto Farfus        BMW               +5.364
 5. Andy Priaulx          BMW               +5.855
 6. Jorg Muller           BMW               +5.943
 7. Tom Coronel           SEAT              +8.096
 8. Sergio Hernandez      BMW              +12.106
 9. Stefano D'Aste        BMW              +13.301
10. Felix Porteiro        BMW              +15.846
11. Nicola Larini         Chevrolet        +16.461
12. Alex Zanardi          BMW              +22.528
13. Rickard Rydell        SEAT             +23.038
14. Mehdi Bennani         SEAT             +25.385
15. Alain Menu            Chevrolet        +26.381
16. Franz Engstler        BMW              +32.002
17. Tom Boardman          SEAT             +33.042
18. Marin Colak           SEAT             +33.730
19. Vito Postiglione      BMW              +34.781
20. Viktor Shapovalov     Lada             +38.341
21. Jaap van Lagen        Lada              +1 lap
22. Robert Huff           Chevrolet         +1 lap

Retirements

     Kirill Ladygin       Lada              7 laps
     Kristian Poulsen     BMW                1 lap
     Jordi Gené           SEAT              0 laps


Fastest lap, Yvan Muller 1:45.735, on lap 3