Suzuka WTCC: Yvan Muller earns fourth title, Norbert Michelisz wins

Much of the action came on the opening lap, with Muller passing RML Chevrolet team-mate Tom Chilton around the outside of Turns 1 and 2, but in turn falling victim to the fast-starting Honda of Tiago Monteiro.

The Portuguese driver ran wide heading into the final corner however, dropping down to eighth and establishing a top four of Michelisz, Alex MacDowall, Muller and Chilton that remained in formation until the finish.

Muller's podium was easily enough to secure an insurmountable points lead, and with it a third title with Chevrolet before he departs for Citroen next year.

The Frenchman almost sealed second after staging a late assault on MacDowall, but the Briton's defence held up, allowing him to secure a career-best second place by just three hundredths of a second.

Neither man could touch Zengo driver Michelisz, who preserved his advantage from pole and rapidly disappeared out front, eventually winning by nearly five seconds.

The orderly top four was in stark contrast to wild battles down the field, in which the two works Hondas were the main losers.

Gabriele Tarquini was hit by technical issues when running fifth, while Monteiro came out worst after a long side-by-side battle with Pepe Oriola ended with his Honda being squeezed into a tyre stack on the apex of Turn 7.

Oriola was handed a drive-through penalty for the scrap, with Monteiro forced to retire.

Their fight allowed James Nash to claim a relatively lonely fifth and also helped James Thompson slip into sixth, equalling Lada's best result of the season.

The Briton had to work hard to fend off 2012 champion Rob Huff, Tom Coronel, Marc Basseng and Fernando Monje, all of whom had previously been bottled up behind the Monteiro/Oriola duel.

Takuya Izawa finished as the second Honda, and first of the series' nine newcomers, in 12th, fractions behind race two polesitter Mehdi Bennani.

Results - 26 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda             23m58.613s
 2.  Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet           +4.832s
 3.  Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet              +5.149s
 4.  Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet              +5.422s
 5.  James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet          +14.377s
 6.  James Thompson      Lada                      +25.611s
 7.  Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT              +25.786s
 8.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW                  +25.940s
 9.  Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT              +26.247s
10.  Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT               +26.534s
11.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW               +26.747s
12.  Takuya Izawa        Honda                     +27.062s
13.  Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW                  +28.805s
14.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW              +34.138s
15.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                      +36.211s
16.  Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT              +36.280s
17.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Wiechers BMW              +36.985s
18.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    Nika Chevrolet            +44.883s
19.  Masaki Kano         Engstler BMW              +48.667s
20.  Jeronimo Badaraco   Son Veng Chevrolet        +52.433s
21.  Filipe de Souza     China Dragon Chevrolet      +1 lap
22.  Kin Veng Ng         China Dragon Chevrolet      +1 lap
23.  Ka Lok Mak          RPM BMW                     +1 lap
24.  Henry Ho            Engstler BMW               +2 laps

Retirements:

     Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet           21 laps
     Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT        21 laps
     Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                      21 laps
     Tiago Monteiro      Honda                      19 laps
     Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                     19 laps