Huff wins for Chevy in race one

Huff, who started third on the grid after teammate Alain Menu had been put to the back of the field for failing the ride-height test in qualifying, leaped into the lead on the run to the first corner. But the SEATs of Jordi Gene, Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller all proved too strong and dragged back past him by the time the quartet turned in.

Gene emerged in the lead ahead of Tarquini, Muller and Huff, but the Chevrolet ace was into the top three by the end of the opening lap after passing Muller.

When Gene ran wide in Turn 6 on lap four, Tarquini dived past him and the opportunistic Huff followed him through into second. A lap later, Tarquini ran wide and allowed Huff to squeeze past him to take a lead he would never lose.

"I got a good start and was ahead of Yvan going down the start/finish straight," said Huff. "But the SEATs worked well together and dragged back past me so I had a bit of work to do.

"The car is lasting really well over a race distance - although a lot of that is down to the fact we haven't got any success ballast - but I was able to get past Jordi and Gabriele when they ran wide."

Tarquini was a comfortable second, while Gene only just held on to third place on home soil under pressure from Muller.

"It was very important for me to get through the first corner as fast as possible because I planned to run hard in the first laps," said Gene. "But soon I was having troubling and locking up the front tyres so I started to drive a little more smoothly.

"I wanted to be on the podium at home in front of my family and friends but I think with one more lap I wouldn't have been."

Lead BMW Jorg Muller claimed fifth place for Schnitzer Motorsport after battling back past the second Chevy of Nicola Larini in the closing stages, while defending champion Andy Priaulx took seventh after clashing with N.Technology Honda driver James Thompson earlier in the race.

Menu charged from the back of the grid to take eighth and reverse grid pole for race two, with Thompson fading to 12th after his race was compromised by clashes with both Priaulx and SEAT's Tiago Monteiro.

Second Schnitzer driver Augusto Farfus failed to finish after going into the gravel in a mid-race melee at the second corner, while ROAL BMW driver Alex Zanardi looked on course to take a reverse grid pole before first being passed by Menu and later retiring.

Pos  Driver                Car         Time
 1.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet  22:52.987
 2.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT       +   5.376
 3.  Jordi Gene            SEAT       +  10.095
 4.  Yvan Muller           SEAT       +  10.491
 5.  Jorg Muller           BMW        +  10.982
 6.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet  +  11.679
 7.  Andy Priaulx          BMW        +  12.114
 8.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet  +  13.189
 9.  Tom Coronel           SEAT       +  19.643
10.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT       +  21.075
11.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT       +  22.016
12.  James Thompson        Honda      +  24.900
13.  Alex Zanardi          BMW        +  26.985
14.  Jose Perez Aicart     SEAT       +  29.021
15.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW        +  31.461
16.  Olivier Tielemans     BMW        +  33.208
17.  Andrey Romanov        BMW        +  42.738
18.  Franz Engstler        BMW        +  46.632
19.  Alexander Lvov        Honda      +  54.226
20.  Viktor Shapovalov     Lada       +1:19.208
21.  Andrey Smetsky        Honda      +   1 lap
22.  Felix Porteiro        BMW        +   1 lap
23.  Sergio Hernandez      BMW        +   1 lap
24.  Ibrahim Okyay         BMW        +   1 lap

Retirements:

     Driver                Car        Laps
     Augusto Farfus        BMW        5
     Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT       2
     Jaap van Lagen        Lada       1