Hungaroring WTCC: Yvan Muller takes pole-to-flag win in race one

Championship leader entering the meeting, front-row starter Lopez slotted in dutifully behind the reigning WTCC champion at Turn 1.

The Argentine maintained a respectful distance to Muller throughout the 14-lap race, finishing 1.2s behind the #1 car at the chequered flag.

Citroen had locked out the top-three positions in qualifying, but hopes of a repeat of its Marrakech season-opening stranglehold of the podium evaporated away from the lights.

World Rally Championship legend Sebastien Loeb lost out to a fast-starting Tiago Monteiro away from the line. A late-braking attempt to recover the position resulted in the nine-time WRC champion sliding wide on the outside of the first corner.

Loeb dropped behind Monteiro's factory Honda team-mate Gabriele Tarquini and customer Civic WTCC competitors Mehdi Bennani and Norbert Michelisz through Turns 2 and 3.

Thereafter, Loeb was unable, or unwilling given the tight turn-around time for race two, to risk a passing manoeuvre.

In a processional race at the front of the field, the top-eight order at the conclusion of lap one remained unchanged to the finish.

Monteiro was unable to match the pace of the Citroen duo at the head of the pack, but the Portuguese former grand prix driver finished a comfortable four seconds clear of Tarquini.

Having qualified fastest Chevrolet runner in seventh, ROAL Motorsport's Tom Chilton received a black and orange flag owing to a loose bonnet. After receiving attention in the pits, the Briton would recover to 14th.

Results - 14 laps

Pos Driver                Car                  Time/Gap
 1. Yvan Muller           Citroen              25m57.292s
 2. Jose Maria Lopez      Citroen              +1.282s
 3. Tiago Monteiro        Honda                +8.961s
 4. Gabriele Tarquini     Honda                +13.980s
 5. Mehdi Bennani         Proteam Honda        +14.747s
 6. Norbert Michelisz     Zengo Honda          +16.672s
 7. Sebastien Loeb        Citroen              +17.475s
 8. Tom Coronel           ROAL Chevrolet       +22.863s
 9. Gianni Morbidelli     Munnich Chevrolet    +27.891s
10. Hugo Valente          Campos Chevrolet     +36.287s
11. Rob Huff              Lada                 +42.968s
12. Dusan Borkovic        Campos Chevrolet     +43.715s
13. James Thompson        Lada                 +48.481s
14. Tom Chilton           ROAL Chevrolet       +55.861s
15. Pasquale di Sabatino  Engstler BMW         +1m23.040s*
16. Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         +1m23.757s*
17. John Filippi          Campos SEAT          +1m48.371s*
18. Yukinori Taniguchi    Nika Honda           +1m48.877s*
19. Rene Munnich          Munnich Chevrolet    +1 lap

Retirements/not classified

    Mikhail Kozlovskiy    Lada                 4 laps

* TC2