Chevrolet take their first ever 1-2

Menu, who yesterday took Chevy's first genuine WTCC pole position, held the lead off the rolling start and survived a late-race safety car period caused when teammate Rob Huff crashed exiting the Audi S after suffering a steering failure following an earlier clash with Andy Priaulx.

Former Ferrari Grand Prix driver Nicola Larini completed the Chevrolet one-two after tracking Menu throughout the race.

While Chevrolet dominated, BMW struggled with independent runner Luca Rangoni the best of them with a stunning third place.

Augusto Farfus, who now leads the championship, ended up fifth after spending most of the race scrapping with Formula One refugee Tiago Monteiro. Monteiro claimed an impressive fourth on his touring car debut after proving the fastest of the SEATs throughout the weekend.

Roberto Colciago, returning from injury after a massive practice shunt ahead of the opening round of the championship at Curitiba in March, was sixth overall and second best independent. The SEAT Italia driver spent much of the race with a queue of cars scrapping over the prized eighth place bottled up behind him.

Huff seemed to have eighth place sewn up in the first half of the race, but the charging Priaulx was soon on his tail after losing time in the first corner traffic jam.

Ultimately, the battle was decided when Huff lost steering and clattered the wall. The SEAT of Gabriele Tarquini slipped ahead of Priaulx, who was forced to take avoiding action, for seventh, while Priaulx secured pole for race two with eighth ahead of SEAT's Jordi Gene.

Both Mullers endured disappointing races. Jorg Muller, who won the season opener at Curitiba, ended up tenth after struggling with understeer in his Schnitzer Motorsport BMW 320si throughout the weekend, while near namesake Yvan Muller retired his SEAT with significant front-right damage after a clash with Stefano d'Aste's independent BMW on the first lap.

While d'Aste continued to take fourth in class, Muller could only limp round to retire in the pits.

The incident also wrecked Felix Porteiro's race. The Spaniard, who had qualified a promising sixth, was shuffled back at the start and was pushed into the gravel by d'Aste after he had clashed with Muller. He was able to rejoin, but could finish only 11th after dropping as low as 21st.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver                Make               Time
 1.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti  25:12.863
 2.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti  +   0.651
 3.  Luca Rangoni          BMW 320si          +   0.987
 4.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT Leon          +   2.358
 5.  Augusto Farfus        BMW 320si          +   3.005
 6.  Roberto Colciago      SEAT Leon          +   5.621
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon          +   6.013
 8.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si          +   6.424
 9.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon          +   7.234
10.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si          +   7.620
11.  Felix Porteiro        BMW 320si          +   8.162
12.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si          +  10.800
13.  James Thompson        Alfa Romeo 156     +  11.781
14.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT Leon          +  11.937
15.  Michel Jourdain       SEAT Leon          +  12.465
16.  Olivier Tielemans     Alfa Romeo 156     +  13.494
17.  Stefano d'Aste        BMW 320si          +  13.820
18.  Emmet O'Brien         SEAT Leon          +  18.637
19.  Viktor Shapovalov     BMW 320i           +  25.713
20.  Lev Fridman           BMW 320i           +  28.050
21.  Evgeny Zelenov        BMW 320i           +   1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver                Make               On Lap
     Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti     8
     Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon             7
     Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon             6
     Miguel Freitas        Alfa Romeo 156        4

Fastest Lap: Luca Rangoni, 1:48.858 on lap 2