Menu takes first win of 2010

The Chevrolet pair moved into first and second places when pole-sitter Augusto Farfus overshot the first corner following light contact from the Cruzes behind.

Farfus dropped to fourth but soon had third back from Tom Coronel and began his chase of the leaders.

He was still closing on Menu when Huff, who had led comfortably, was shown the black flag - apparently for contact with Farfus at the first turn.

Once Huff headed for the pits, Menu maintained just enough of a gap over Farfus to the flag.

Yvan Muller moved past Michel Nykjaer and Coronel to complete the podium. Tiago Monteiro and Andy Priaulx, who was on a comeback after he was delayed by contact with Gabriele Tarquini at the start, also found a way round Nykjaer to end in fifth and sixth places.

Norbert Michelisz made his way up to eighth from 15th on the grid and will start this afternoon's reverse-grid race from pole.

Kristian Poulsen came out on top of a race-long scrap with Sergio Hernandez for independents' class honours in 10th place.

SEAT's title hope Tarquini was eliminated on the first lap when his car was damaged in the first corner squeeze. He flew off the road into the gravel a couple of corners later and though he tried to crawl back to the pits for repairs, he was forced to park up and retire with broken suspension.

The SEATs of Jordi Gene and Fredy Barth also fell down the order after coming together on the first lap.

The BMW of Fabio Fabiani and the Chevrolet of Darryl O'Young both pitted for lengthy repairs during the race, but rejoined the running before the finish.

Pos  Driver              Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet  22m50.427s
 2.  Augusto Farfus      BMW          + 0.491s
 3.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet    + 4.738s
 4.  Tom Coronel         SEAT         + 6.835s
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      SEAT         + 7.428s
 6.  Andy Priaulx        BMW          + 7.845s
 7.  Michel Nykjaer      SEAT        + 13.063s
 8.  Norbert Michelisz   SEAT        + 16.187s
 9.  Kristian Poulsen    BMW         + 16.449s
10.  Sergio Hernandez    BMW         + 17.897s
11.  Fredy Barth         SEAT        + 20.146s
12.  Jordi Gene          SEAT        + 20.584s
13.  Franz Engstler      BMW         + 32.077s
14.  Mehdi Bennani       BMW         + 34.005s
15.  Stefano D'Aste      BMW         + 34.164s
16.  Andrey Romanov      BMW         + 36.208s
17.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Chevrolet   + 45.550s

Retirements/not classified:

     Rob Huff            Chevrolet  10 laps
     Fabio Fabiani       BMW        6 laps
     Darryl O'Young      Chevrolet  5 laps
     Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT       0 laps