Huff stretches lead with Brno win

Following a strong rolling start for both drivers, Muller defended hard from Huff into Turn 1, the Briton nearly taking to the grass in his efforts to avoid contact with his Chevrolet team-mate.

A second attempt to take the race lead at Turn 7 was rebuffed before Huff finally got the job done around the outside two corners later. The Chevy pair ran in formation thereafter, with just over half a second covering them at the chequered flag. The result means Huff now leads the championship by 38 points from Muller.

"I had one chance, and I knew I couldn't come to the inside because I thought Tom [Coronel] was there," said a delighted Huff. "For sure Yvan squeezed me - he squeezed me hard - but I wasn't going to lift. I think [Muller] realised just how far he'd pushed me and let me back on and that was that! We just proved then that we have got the pace this race weekend."

After a difficult qualifying session, fellow Chevrolet driver Alain Menu collected the final spot on the podium following a near-race long battle with a fast-starting Coronel. Having just failed to deprive the ROAL Motorsport driver of third into the first corner, Menu remained glued to the BMW before outbraking Coronel into Turn 1 with three laps to go. Coronel eventually finished a fighting drive in fourth, just ahead of lead independent driver Kristian Poulsen (Engstler).

Robert Dahlgren finished a solid sixth for Polestar Racing, surviving a grassy moment when his attempt to overtake then fourth-placed Menu around the outside of Turn 3 did not pay off.

Behind the Volvo driver, a titanic battle for seventh place eventually went the way of Darryl O'Young (Bamboo Chevrolet), with Norbert Michelisz (Zengo Dension BMW), Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) and Michel Nykjaer (SUNRED SEAT) rounding out the top 10.

SEAT drivers Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini continued their difficult weekend in race one, with the former finishing 12th, over 25 seconds behind the race winner, and the 2009 champion ending his race at the first turn after contact with Nyjaer.

Results - 10 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet           21m59.507s
 2.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet             + 0.858s
 3.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet            + 11.697s
 4.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW             + 13.026s
 5.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW         + 13.772s
 6.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo       + 14.353s
 7.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet     + 21.288s
 8.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Dension BMW    + 21.584s
 9.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW          + 23.436s
10.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT          + 23.731s
11.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW          + 24.146s
12.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT          + 27.624s
13.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT          + 29.796s
14.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT          + 34.209s
15.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet     + 34.828s
16.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW         + 39.038s
17.  Urs Sonderegger     Wiechers BMW       + 1m08.893s

Retirements:

     Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT             6 laps
     Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT             3 laps