Yvan Muller grabs World Touring Car points lead with victory at Valencia

In a thrilling start, Gabriele Tarquini edged his SEAT Leon down the inside of poleman Muller, with Huff making it three-wide into Turn 1. Despite braking the latest, Muller could not hold off Tarquini's advances, and the former champion sealed the deal over the reigning champion at Turn 2.

Muller now had to defend from Huff, who had wisely backed out of the three-wide moment as he was on the outside. At Turn 4, Huff was again on the outside of Muller, but as he attempted to file through behind him, he was punted from behind by Menu - who himself had been shoved by Tiago Monteiro (SEAT).

Huff slid wildly across the infield, dropping back to 11th. Menu (who caught his own slide superbly) was initially given a drive-through for the contact, until the stewards realised Monteiro's involvement and 'suspended' the penalty.

Tarquini could only hold on for a couple of laps at the front, with Muller pulling off a perfect outbraking move at Turn 2. Tarquini dropped back into the clutches of Menu, who moved ahead of him when the SEAT slowed on lap 7. Tarquini's technical problem looked intermittent, but it eventually sent him pitward three laps later.

Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) sealed his place on the podium with a neat move on Monteiro, who would slip back to eighth by the finish. Engstler BMW's Kristian Poulsen was next home in fourth, ahead of the recovering Huff, who pulled off a brilliant pass on Monteiro and Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) in one move at Turn 12.

Villa tracked Huff right to the finish, while also holding the Zengo Dension BMW of Norbert Michelisz at bay. Robert Dahlgren came through to finish ninth from 17th in the Volvo.

Results - 14 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet          25m39.052s
 2.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet            + 1.103s
 3.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW             + 6.345s
 4.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW         + 9.961s
 5.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet           + 15.404s
 6.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW         + 15.630s
 7.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW           + 16.206s
 8.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT         + 16.665s
 9.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo      + 16.777s
10.  Stefano D'Aste      Wiechers BMW        + 17.139s
11.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT         + 18.962s
12.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT         + 23.362s
13.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT         + 26.603s
14.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet    + 28.955s
15.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet    + 44.967s
16.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW       + 1m37.597s

Retirements:

     Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT           10 laps
     David Sigacev       KK BMW                10 laps
     Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT           10 laps
     Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW           9 laps
     Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW            4 laps