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Huff wins thrilling first Monza race

Rob Huff converted his pole position into a victory in the opening race of this weekend's World Touring Car Championship round at Monza, although the Chevrolet squad's hopes of a 1-2-3 were ruined when Alain Menu was tagged into the wall by Yvan Muller on the final lap

Menu had taken advantage of a gap left by Muller at the Parabolica on the opening lap to claim second and spent much of the race in a robust battle with Huff for the lead. The pair made contact at least twice, leaving Huff shedding rear bodywork and enduring a narrow escape when he was knocked out of shape at the second chicane.

Over the last couple of laps Menu found himself back under pressure from Muller, who was looking for a way around his team-mate when he caught the right-rear of Menu's car and sent it straight into the inside wall at the second chicane, whereupon it spun back across the track and came close to collecting Muller's car as well.

Muller hung on for second, however the incident is one of three currently under investigation by stewards.

Tiago Monteiro (SUNRED SEAT) secured the final place on the podium by getting a good run on the independent BMW of Norbert Michelisz at the Parabolica on the final lap and then out-dragging the Hungarian on the run to the line. The final margin between the pair was just 0.03s, with ROAL BMW's Tom Coronel only 0.2s further in arrears.

Results - 9 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet           18m07.398s
 2.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet             + 1.291s
 3.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT           + 4.239s
 4.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo-Dension BMW     + 4.269s
 5.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW              + 4.499s
 6.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW          + 5.509s
 7.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet     + 10.506s
 8.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW          + 10.798s
 9.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW         + 11.492s
10.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT          + 15.366s
11.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW          + 18.439s
12.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT          + 18.873s
13.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet     + 19.286s
14.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT          + 20.070s
15.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo       + 30.709s
16.  Ibrahim Okyay       Otomotiv BMW         + 58.046s
17.  Urs Sonderegger     Wiechers BMW         + 59.018s
18.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW        + 1m25.422s
19.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet              + 1 lap
20.  Marchy Lee          KK BMW                 + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT             5 laps
     Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT             2 laps

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