Rob Huff keeps World Touring Car title hopes alive by resisting Yvan Muller in first Macau race

In a race that was affected by two safety car periods so only had four proper racing laps, Huff kept his cool to lead all the way - despite big pressure from Muller.

Huff had led cleanly away at the original start, which was delayed for one lap because the cars were not properly lined up, but the safety car was called out almost immediately after Andre Couto and Alain Menu tangled at Mandarin Bend.

SEAT driver Couto spun going through the corner on the opening lap, and then collected his Chevrolet rival - whose damaged car was left stranded on the track.

A restart at the beginning of lap five was only brief after Darryl O'Young and Mehdi Bennani clashed on the exit of Lisboa - bringing out the safety car again.

The racing got going again at the start of lap eight and Huff held his advantage at the front, despite Muller looking for any opportunity he could at Lisboa each time - with the pair touching bumpers on the final lap.

The result means that Muller heads into the second WTCC race with a 13-point advantage over Huff.

Gabriele Tarquini finished a lonely third in the best of the SEATs, ahead of Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) and Michel Nykjaer (SUNRED SEAT).

Results - 11 laps:

Pos  Driver                 Team/Car            Time/Gap
 1.  Rob Huff               Chevrolet         35m01.903s
 2.  Yvan Muller            Chevrolet           + 1.016s
 3.  Gabriele Tarquini      SUNRED SEAT         + 6.666s
 4.  Tom Coronel            ROAL BMW            + 8.239s
 5.  Michel Nykjaer         SUNRED SEAT        + 10.778s
 6.  Franz Engstler         Engstler BMW       + 11.165s
 7.  Kristian Poulsen       Engstler BMW       + 11.860s
 8.  Norbert Michelisz      Zengo BMW          + 12.049s
 9.  Mehdi Bennani          Proteam BMW        + 14.149s
10.  Pepe Oriola            SUNRED SEAT        + 16.940s
11.  Javier Villa           Proteam BMW        + 17.136s
12.  Tiago Monteiro         SUNRED SEAT        + 21.775s
13.  Charles Ng             Engstler BMW       + 41.256s
14.  Joseph Merszei         Engstler BMW       + 46.447s

Retirements:

     Filipe de Souza        Corsa Chevrolet       9 laps
     Gary Kwok              Wiechers BMW          8 laps
     Aleksei Dudukalo       SUNRED SEAT           7 laps
     Philip Ma              Proteam BMW           7 laps
     Mak Ka Lok             RPM BMW               7 laps
     Darryl O'Young         Bamboo Chevrolet      4 laps
     Andre Couto            SUNRED SEAT            1 lap
     Alain Menu             Chevrolet              1 lap